Solar effect

A Cabinet-approved project for generating 2,000 MW grid-connected PV solar power will go a long way in reducing emissions and creating jobs,reports K.A. Martin

In this May 25, 2011 photograph, Sharan Pinto installs a solar panel on the rooftop of a house in Nada, a village near the southwest Indian port of Mangalore, India. Across India, thousands of homes are receiving their first light through small companies and aid programs that are bypassing the central electricity grid to deliver solar panels to the rural poor. Those customers could provide the human energy that advocates of solar power have been looking for to fuel a boom in the next decade. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved plans to generate 2,000 MW of grid-connected PV solar power on a Build-Own-Operate basis by solar power developers under the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

The programme will take off with a viability gap funding to the tune of Rs.2,100 crore, to be disbursed between financial years 2016-17 and 2021-22.

According to the Press Information Bureau (PIB), generation of additional 2,000 MW of solar PV power will involve an investment of Rs.12,000 crore, of which viability gap funding will be to the tune of Rs.2,100 crore at the rate of Rs.1 crore per MW in the open category and Rs.1.31 crore per MW in the domestic content requirement category. The solar mission project will reduce about 3.41 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission a year and generate jobs for 12,000 people in rural and urban areas.

The investment of the government will be spread over the coming financial years. A sum of Rs.1,000 crore will come during 2016-17; Rs.260 crore during 2017-18; and Rs.210 crore each during the following three financial years. While the State-specific utilities stand to benefit from the scheme, it will also create employment and infrastructure in States and Union Territories (UT). The State and UT utilities will be paid a specific rate for the solar power.

Installation of 2,000 MW of solar power generation facility will generate a total of 3,320 million units of power a year, which can light up nearly a million households.

According to the project plans, price of the solar power will be Rs.5.43 per unit for the first year with an increase of five paise per unit per year till the tariff reaches the level of Rs.6.43 per unit. This will take place over a period of 21 years from which period, the price of power would remain at the same level.

The scheme will be implemented by the Solar Energy Corporation of India as per the guidelines of the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy. Viability gap funding will be made available by the Ministry from the National Clean Energy Fund operated by the Finance Ministry.

Installation of 2,000 MW of solar power generation facility will generate a total of 3,320 million units of power a year, which can light up nearly a million households