The Centre has approved Raipur and Bilaspur to be developed as ‘Solar cities’ in Chhattisgarh
So far, 55 existing cities in 27 States/UTs are being developed as solar cities in the country under ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme', senior government officials stated.
In fact, Raipur city was the only city among nine other cities in the country which was chosen by the Centre among the ‘Pilot Solar Cities’ for implementation of its ambitious ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme’ in 2013-14,as per the 2013-14 annual report of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for 2013-14.
The other eight cities chosen for 'Pilot Solar Cities' programmes were-Rajkot, Faridabad, Shimla, Thane, Shirdi, Aizwal, Amritsar and Agartala.
As per the report, the development of the ‘Solar Cities Programme’ aims at minimum 10 per cent reduction in the projected demand of conventional energy at the end of five years, the report stated.
The aforesaid objectives are to be achieved through a combination of energy efficient measures and enhancing supply from renewable energy sources, it stated.
The Ministry assists the municipal corporations and the urban local bodies in preparation of a Master Plan for increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy supply in the city, setting up institutional arrangements for the implementation of the Master Plan and the awareness generation and capacity building activities.
The Centre had set the target of supporting 60 cities/towns for development as ‘solar/green cities’.
Under the programme, during 2013-14, a total of 46 cities were sanctioned of which Master Plan of 39 cities were finalized.
The pilot project on the Grid Interactive rooftop small SPV power plant project was successfully implemented in ‘Chandigarh Model Solar City.’
This has demonstrated the feasibility of small grid connected SPV Rooftop in the country, it stated.
So far ( 2013-14), cumulative 6.25 MW have been sanctioned/approved under the ‘Solar City Programme’ (1.74 MW) and rooftop programme (4.51 MW) including 3.21 MWp in the year 2013-14 for Chandigarh city, the report stated.
Notably, Chhattisgarh achieved total commissioned capacity of 10.28 MW as on June 11, 2015 for Grid Connected Solar Power Projects under various schemes, stated a document of Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
During the period, the MNRE projects achieved capacity of 4 MW, the projects under Chhattisgarh State Policy (1.68 MW) and REC scheme projects (4.6 MW) in Chhattisgarh, it stated.
Neighbouring Madhya Pradesh achieved total commissioned capacity of 563.58 MW during the period while Odisha achieved 31.92 MW and Andhra Pradesh achieved 247.46 MW.
Chhattisgarh achieved a total commissioned capacity of 7.1000 MW from Grid Connected Solar PV power projects as on March 31, 2014, according to the 2013-14 annual report of Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
The total commissioned capacity of such Solar PV power projects was 4.000 MW as on March 31, 2013 in Chhattisgarh, it stated.
The grid connected power projects were commissioned under Phase-I of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) .
A total of 11 projects of 50.5 MW capacity under the ‘migration scheme’ and 26 projects of 140 MW capacity under Batch-I were commissioned during the year across the country.
The JNNSM is a key initiative of the Union government and the State governments to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenges.
The Mission is one of the several initiatives that were part of National Action Plan on Climate Change, it stated.
The JNNSM was launched on January 11, 2010 and the Mission targets included- deployment of 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power by 2022, 2000 MW of off-grid solar applications including 20 million solar lights by 2022, 20 million square metre of solar thermal collector area besides creating favourable conditions for developing solar manufacturing capability in the country and to support R&D and capacity building activities to achieve grid parity by 2022. The Mission is to be completed in three phases, the report stated.
For the first phase of the Mission, the Union Cabinet last year approved a target to set up 1,100 MW grid connected solar plants including 100 MW capacity plants as rooftop and other small solar power plants till March 2013.
In addition, a target of 200 MW capacity equivalent of off-grid solar applications and 7 million square metre solar thermal collector area were also approved.
The Union Cabinet last year had also approved setting up of a large utility scale grid power plants through bundling of solar power with the unallocated thermal power available from NTPC stations and the policy to provide generation based incentive for small grid connected solar power plants, it stated.