In a major boost to UT Administration’s ambitious ‘solar city’ project, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has approved funds amounting to Rs 20 crore for implementation of solar power projects in Chandigarh.
The MNRE has given its nod for installation of solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plants in various Government buildings of the city. The amount has been approved for the installation of SPV power plants in 32 schools, 25 KW SPV power plant on the rooftop of Punjab Raj Bhawan among other Government buildings. While talking to The Pioneer, Santosh Kumar, CEO of Chandigarh Renewable Energy, Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) and Director UT Science and Technology Department said, “The MNRE has approved a grant of Rs 20 crore for implementation of solar power projects of total capacity of 2 MW in Chandigarh.”
He said, “A special incentive in the form of 30 per cent financial assistance by the Centre will be provided to Chandigarh for the solar projects,” and added that “the grant is approved for the projects including installation of SPV power plants in 32 schools, SPV power plant in Punjab Raj Bhawan and Colleges.” Santosh said, “SPV power plant of 30-35 KWP in small schools and 50-60 KWP in big schools in the Union Territory of Chandigarh would be commissioned. The proposed SPV power plants would be interactive with the grid system so as to transfer the extra power supply to the main grid system of Chandigarh.”
The MNRE had recently, given a go ahead to UT Administration for installation of SPV power plants in 230 private houses of the city. The CREST has planned to launch a new scheme for the city residents, where they can install smaller capacity SPV power plants of 1 KW, 2 KW, 3 KW, 5 KW capacity etc on their rooftop and can also avail 30 percent subsidy of MNRE.
Also, those residents who have inverter and battery system at their houses to deal with power cut can just retrofit their existing system with solar panel and charge controller and they can start using solar energy by spending Rs 25,000. Notably, the Joint Energy Regulatory Commission (JERC) had last month, given nod to CREST’s proposal for selling power generated from solar energy to the UT Electricity Department.The tariff to sell the electricity generated would be fixed by the JERC soon. CREST and Electricity Department will enter a 25 year contract. The CREST has installed power plants at more than 10 locations in Chandigarh. And, from eight SPV power plants, more than 2,80,000 units of electricity was produced last year.