New policy for rooftop solar power plant soon

RANCHI: The Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Authority (JREDA) on Friday said it has prepared a framework for the state rooftop solar power policy 2018 with an objective to produce 500-megawatt (MW) power through grid-connected rooftop solar plants by 2022. JREDA director Niranjan Kumar said the new policy will facilitate rooftop solar power projects in the state’s urban settlements.

Speaking at an event at a city hotel, Kumar said, “The state’s solar rooftop policy, after its notification, will certainly help in setting up solar power projects to achieve the solar rooftop targets of Ranchi and Jamshedpur. We are also working to develop a solar roadmap for Jharkhand so that we can achieve the targets set under the Jharkhand Solar Policy 2015.”

The policy, which was revised last year, aims to push Jharkhand’s total solar power production capacity to 2,650 MW by the year 2020, including large scale and rooftop solar plants.

While Kumar did not elaborate on the salient features of the new rooftop solar policy, senior officers at JREDA said it will provision one-time financial subsidies up to a minimum of 30% at the time of installation for large-scale plants and households.

A report on the potential of solar energy in Jamshedpur, jointly prepared by the Center for Environment and Energy Development (CEED), JREDA and the Central University, Jharkhand, was made public at the event. The report claimed that Ranchi and Jamshedpur can produce up to 1 gigawatt (GW) cumulative solar power through rooftop solar panels, create employments for 24,000 people and can draw investments to the tune of $52 million.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes