Aiming to generate solar power through rooftops of buildings in Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) limits, the civic body Monday inked an MoU with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) engaged SECI, a central public sector undertaking under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), for setting up solar power plants on the rooftops of the residential, educational, commercial and industrial buildings in Smart City Surat.

The MoU was signed by Surat Municipal Commissioner Milind Torwane and SECI managing director Ashvini Kumar on Monday afternoon at SMC headquarters at Muglisara. After signing the MoU Commissioner Milind Towane said, “We have signed an MoU with SECI and are hoping to start the process of inviting applications from those interested soon. We have already installed solar rooftop power panels on our main building, and other buildings of SMC and are generating solar power.”

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It will also coordinate with local discoms in association with SMC for net metering of the generated solar power as per the prevailing regulation of the state government. The life span of the solar plant is 25 years while maintenance and installation work will be entrusted to a third party agency, said sources in SMC.

While baseline survey will commence on July 25, guidelines will be given till August 31. To create awareness among the people, SMC will undertake a publicity drive through social media, banners and hoardings as well as seminars, exhibitions from September 1-5. Thereafter it will start accepting applications from third week of September to October 31 which will be sent to SECI for execution of the projects.

All residential buildings opting for this will get 30 per cent and 10 per cent subsidy from the Central and state governments, respectively. The union government will give 30 percent subsidy for hospitals and educational institutes while Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) will give 30 percent subsidy for commercial and industrial complexes.

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