Cabinet okays ₹75,000 crore rooftop solar scheme, 1 crore households to get subsidy of up to ₹78,000

The Prime Minister launched the scheme on 13th February 2024.

The scheme provides a central financial assistance (CFA) of 60% of system cost for 2 kW systems and 40% of additional system cost for systems between 2 kW to 3 kW capacity. The CFA will be capped at 3 kW.

At current benchmark prices, this will mean ₹30,000 subsidy for 1 kW system, ₹60,000 for 2 kW systems and ₹78,000 for 3 kW systems or higher.

The households will apply for subsidy through the National Portal and will be able to select a suitable vendor for installing rooftop solar.

The National Portal will assist the households in their decision-making process by providing relevant information such as appropriate system sizes, benefits calculator, vendor rating etc.

Households will be able to access collateral-free low-interest loan products of around 7% at present for installation of residential RTS (rooftop solar) systems up to 3 kW.

Other Features of the scheme include a Model Solar Village to be developed in each district to act as a role model for adoption of rooftop solar in rural areas.

Besides, Urban Local Bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions shall also benefit from incentives for promoting rooftop solar (RTS) installations in their areas.

The scheme provides a component for payment security for renewable energy service company (RESCO) based models as well as a fund for innovative projects in RTS.

Through this scheme, the households will be able to save electricity bills as well as earn additional income through sale of surplus power to DISCOMs. A 3 kW system will be able to generate more than 300 units a month on average for a household.

Diu becomes first and the only Union Territory in India to be 100 pc solar powered

 

 14th April 2018

Diu, a major tourist and travel hub is now India's first and only union territory that is completely solar powered. With only 50,000 people living in the island, Diu is one of the 10 least populated districts in India.

Despite a geographical area of only 42 square km, a 9 megawatt solar park has been built in Fudam area, spread over 50 acres. The park costed Rs 62 crore and was built in two phases since 2016.

Until three years ago, electricity was imported by Diu from a power grid owned by Gujarat government. But however, that practice lead to severe losses. Currently, solar power powers up the territory to meet almost 30 percent of power requirements on a daily basis, and it is reported to be cutting down on the losses.

A total of 13 megawatts of electricity comes from solar power-generating facilities and around three megawatts is generated by rooftop solar plants and 10 megawatts by its other solar power plants.

Daman and Diu electricity department’s executive engineer Milind Ingle, told Times of India,

"Population of Diu is 56,000 only. For water and electricity, the Union territory was solely dependent on the Gujarat government. To overcome this limitation, the administration of the Union territory decided to set up solar power plants in Diu. Diu’s peak time demand for electricity goes up to 7MW and we generate about 10.5MW of electricity from solar energy daily. This is way more than the consumption demand requirement."

Hemant Kumar, Diu's district collector in an interaction with Economic Times said,

"Early this year, we were picked as part of India’s Smart City mission. Renewable energy is one of the many steps we are taking to get there."

As India offers up cash and advice, sunny nations form a solar alliance

March 12, 2018

 

NEW DELHI: Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has moved to quickly scale up its use of renewable power. 

In 2014, the year Modi took office, India had 3 gigawatts of solar power. By the end of 2017, it had nearly 7 times that, or 20 GW, according to industry tracker Bridge to India, a renewable energy consultancy. 

Now India wants to quintuple that total by 2022 - a goal once seen as hugely ambitious but now considered within reach by energy experts. 

Progress is clearly happening quickly: During 2017 alone, India doubled its installed solar capacity from 10 GW to 20 GW. 

"India is going to maintain and accelerate the momentum. It will move to be the number two player in the next year or two," said Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies at the Australia-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a think tank. 

In 2017, India added the third largest amount of national solar capacity, just behind the U.S. and China, and was overtaking Japan, according to IEEFA research. 

India’s solar capacity expands by record 5,525.98 MW, doubling growth

In the last year, 2016-17, the country’s solar energy capacity expanded by a record 5,525.98 MW. According to reports released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India had added 3,010 MW in the previous year, thus translating to an almost doubling of growth in the past year.

Cumulative solar capacity currently stands at 12,288.83 MW, against 6,762.85 MW at the end of March 2016, says an ET report. Renewable Energy and Mines Minister Piyush Goyal was visibly satisfied that the growth is impressive, even if it falls short of the target. 

Santosh Vaidya, Joint Secretary at the MNRE, said,

By the end of next year, our minister has committed to a cumulative target of 20,000 MW. This would mean adding another 7,750 MW in 2017-18. Once we do so, we will have reached the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) target two years in advance.

The cumulative target the MNRE had set earlier was 17,000 MW by the end of 2016-17. The JNNSM, which initially set up a target of 20,000 MW, was later increased to 100,000 MW after PM Modi came to power in 2014. Last year, of the 5,526 MW added, only 2,803 MW of solar power was generated by March 2017.

Vaidya further added,

These projects were ready and were only awaiting their synchronisation with the grid or state approval or signing of the power purchase agreement. We have seen how low tariffs have fallen at bids such as the one at the Rewa Solar Park.

Andhra Pradesh has been the highest contributor of solar capacity in 2016-17 with an annual generation of 1,294.26 MW. Karnataka stood second (882.38 MW), and was followed by Telangana (759.13 MW). The other states that were in the league were Rajasthan (543 MW), Tamil Nadu (630.01 MW), Punjab (388 MW), Uttar Pradesh (193.24 MW), and Uttarakhand (192.35 MW).

Rajasthan, which was the top state in producing solar energy for the last three years, lost its tag to Karnataka. Very recently, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had unveiled a mission named ‘Mission 41k’ as an attempt to revitalise the Indian Railways over the next ten years. This mission aims at saving electrical energy and spending on electricity by shifting to solar energy. This has been proved possible before, saving Rs 4,000 crore on energy in the past. Through the 'Mission 41k' initiative, Indian Railways plans to save Rs 41,000 crore on the energy expenditure budget.