The solar power is all set to light up the community centres in Chandigarh. In a significant move towards solar power generation and popularising the usage of Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) power plants in residential areas here, the UT Science and Technology Department has chalked out a proposal to install SPV power plants at all the community centres in the city.
Chandigarh has a total of 40 community centres, which are used for organising various religious and social functions by the city’s denizens. The UT Science and Technology Department has planned to install 100 KWPH SPV power plant each at the community centres in Chandigarh.
As the community centres come under the control of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh, a joint meeting of MCC officials and senior UT officials will be convened this week to finalise the modalities of the proposal.
While talking to The Pioneer, Santosh Kumar, Director UT Science and Technology Department said, “The proposal has been discussed with the senior officials of UT Administration and MCC. Now, a meeting will be held during this week to finalise the plan.”
“The budget estimates for installation of SPV power plants on all community centres will also be finalised soon. As per the plan, a 100 KWp SPV power plant each will be installed on community centres,” he said.
The proposed SPV power plant would be interactive with the grid system so as to transfer the extra power supply to the main grid system of the city. Santosh Kumar said, “Besides generating electricity from solar energy, the proposal aimed at popularising the usage of SPV power plants in residential areas here. With the commissioning of SPV power plants at community centres, the visibility of SPV solar system will increase in residential areas.” As of now, the Administration’s initiatives of tapping solar energy at homes have failed to attract the city residents. Despite the subsidy of 30 percent being provided by CREST (Chandigarh
Renewal Energy Science and Technology Society) on solar panels for first 100 applicants, the residents continue to ignore the concept of utilising solar power to generate electricity at homes. The scheme launched by CREST last year for installation of solar panels in residential areas, especially to use exiting inverters as solar inverters at home, has received a lukewarm response with only about 60 applications received from the city denizens till now.
Santosh Kumar said, “There is a lack of awareness about SPV solar systems among the general public. The UT Department is now making efforts to popularize the usage of SPV power plants, solar panels and solar water heating systems among residents.”