Install solar plant at house, or face the heat

CHANDIGARH: With the two-year deadline for installing rooftop solar power plants at residential properties set to expire in three months, notices will be issued to owners who fail to comply.

The Chandigarh administration, in a notification issued on May 18, 2016, had made installation of rooftop solar power plants mandatory in residential houses measuring 500 square yard and above and group housing societies. There are around 10,000 such houses in different sectors, including 8 (417 houses), 11 (493 houses), 33 (643 houses), 35 (419 houses) and 36 (417 houses), of which only 100 have installed solar plants of collective capacity of 579.74 kwp. As many as 158 have applied for installing solar plants of total capacity of 896.24 kwp.

There are 112 group housing societies — in sectors 48, 49, 50, and 51 — in the city, with over 1,000 flats.
The Central government had selected Chandigarh to be developed as a ‘model solar city’ and set an ambitious target of installation of 50mw solar plants, both at residential and government buildings, by 2022. So far, Chandigarh has reached 13.5mw-mark. Being a land locked city, residential buildings hold key to achieving the target.

Unhappy with the public’s cold response, Chandigarh Renewal Energy, Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) has written to the estate office to initiate action against the erring owners.

“We have asked the estate office to issue notices for not complying with the bylaws framed in 2016. We have been forced to resort to such a drastic step,” said CREST CEO Santosh Kumar.
Estate office is the custodian of all the buildings — both commercial and residential — in the city, and these are governed by provisions of the Punjab Capital Act, 1952.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes