Monday, August 13, 2012

Solar homes to meet state households energy needs


KOCHI:The state's plans to exploit renewable energy sources to meet electricity demands has inched one step closer to reality with the central government giving an in-principle approval for the 10,000 Solar Homes project. An official announcement is expected soon, said a topgovernment official.
Solar power plants, with a capacity of 1kw, will be installed on roof tops of 10,000 homes. Solar panels, which can generate approximately five units of electricity every day will be installed on rooftops due to the scarcity of huge tracts of land required for solar power plants.
It is estimated that each unit would cost approximately Rs 2.5 lakh, including solar panels and storage batteries. But people availing this solar scheme will get a subsidy of around Rs 1.5 lakh.
"We had approached the ministry of new and renewable energy to fund the project three months ago. And the central government recently gave an assurance that it will give a subsidy of Rs 81,000 or 30% of the total cost, whichever is less," said a top official with the Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT), on condition of anonymity. ANERT will implement this project in Kerala.
The project has envisaged in such a way that all 14 districts would be given equal priority while implementing the project. "A notification will be issued in a month's time for selecting houses to implement the project. Even though all districts would be given equal priority, the number of solar power units in each district will be decided after considering the response received, said the official.
He added that technical verification would be made before selecting beneficiaries under the project in order to ensure that they have enough space for installing solar power panels.
The official said that state government will give a subsidy of Rs 39,000 for installing solar units and have already sanctioned fund for the same.
The state's plans to exploit renewable energy sources to meet its electricity requirements has inched one step closer to reality with the central government giving in-principle approval for the '10,000 Solar Homes project' and an official announcement is expected soon.
The project envisages to install solar power plants of 1 kw capacity each, totaling 10MW, on rooftops of 10,000 homes across the state for electricity generation. Under the much-hyped project, solar panels, which can generate approximately five units of electricity every day will be installed on rooftops due to the scarcity of huge tracts of land required for solar power plants. It is estimated that each unit would cost approximately Rs 2.5 lakh, including solar panels and storage batteries, but will get a subsidy of around Rs 1.5 lakhs under the project.
"We had approached the ministry of new and renewable energy to fund the project three months ago. And the central government recently gave an assurance to provide a subsidy of Rs 81,000 or 30 percent of the total cost, whichever is less," said a top official with the Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT), who didn't want to be quoted. ANERT is the implementing agency for the project.
The project has envisaged in such a way that all the districts in the state would be given equal priority for the implementation of the project. "A notification will be issued in a month's time for the selection of houses to implement the project. Even as all the districts would be given equal priority, number of solar power units in each district will be decided after considering the response received, said the official.
He added that technical verification would be made before selecting beneficiaries under the project in order to ensure that they have enough space for installing solar power panels.
The official said that state government will give a subsidy of Rs 39,000 for installing solar units and have already sanctioned fund for the same.