It seems that solar power, which had been put on the backburner in Gujarat in the past few years, is back on the government’s radar. If the state government’s targets are anything to go by, the state will see more solar power capacity addition in each of the next five years than what has been installed in the state cumulatively in the last six years.
As of December 2017, Gujarat’s installed solar power capacity was 1,612 MW, the sixth highest among all states in the country. With installed capacity of 3,200 MW, Telangana is the top-ranked state. The other states ahead of Gujarat are Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
A senior Gujarat government official told DNA that the government is targeting 2,000 MW of solar power capacity each year till 2022.
“We plan to add 2,000 MW solar power generation capacity every year for the next five years. This will be in Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects, solar parks, and other initiatives,” Sujit Gulati, additional chief secretary of Energy & Petrochemicals Department, said.
Gujarat was the pioneer in harnessing solar energy and had announced a Solar Power Policy way back in 2009. By 2012, around 600 MW solar power capacity had already become operational, which was about 90% of the country’s total solar capacity. The figure soon crossed 1,000 MW, but the government applied the breaks on further capacity addition, even as Telangana, Rajasthan and other states aggressively added solar capacities, and left Gujarat far behind.
“We already had excess solar power capacity, and we slowed down due to high price of solar power, which was in the range of Rs 7-9 per unit at the time. Even other states tapped solar power in a big way only in the last couple of years when tariff fell below Rs4-5 per unit. Now, tariffs are around Rs 2.50 per unit, and hence it makes sense to add more capacity,” said a senior official, requesting anonymity.
From around 1,000 MW at the end of 2014-15, the state added 117 MW solar power generation capacity in 2015-16, and 138 MW in 2016-17.
“We have added 345 MW solar power capacity as of December in the current year,” said an official of Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA).
As a thumb rule, typical investment for a 1 MW solar power plant is about Rs4-5 crore, which means the state could see investment of Rs8,000-10,000 crore in solar energy each year till 2022.
Source: dnaindia
