Key Highlights Aiming to generate solar power through rooftops of buildings and spare land under SMC jurisdiction, the civic body inked an MoU with the Solar Energy Corporation of India

The Surat Municipal Corporation is set to launch a survey to access the ground situation, starting July 25

Surat: If all goes well, the Diamond City is all set to become `Solar City' in real sense.

The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is set to launch a survey to access the ground situation and readiness of households, educational institutions, commercial establishments and industries, for installing rooftop solar plants, starting July 25.

Aiming to generate solar power through rooftops of buildings and spare land under SMC jurisdiction, the civic body inked an MoU with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). The MoU engaged SECI, a central public sector undertaking under ministry of new and renewable energy for setting up solar power plants on the rooftops of buildings owned by households, educational institutions, industries, commercial establishments, to name a few.

The rooftop solar plants could be a boon for small households. The solar plants will have a net metering system. Net metering allows customers who generate their own electricity from solar energy to feed unused electricity back into the grid and be compensated for that. The power generated through solar plants on the rooftops will reduce consumers' monthly or bi-monthly expenditure on electricity.. For this, the households will be getting 30% subsidy from the central government and 10% subsidy from the state government for installation of rooftop solar plants. For installation of one kilowatt solar plant, the cost is around Rs 1 lakh. For this, the consumers will get direct subsidy benefit of Rs 40,000.

A one kilowatt solar plant could produce five units of electricity per day and it requires 150 square feet of area on the rooftop. If suppose, a household is consuming 15 units of electricity per day , the owner will have to pay for just 10 units -with 5 units of solar power generation getting reversed in the net meter.

The one kilowatt solar plant will be generating around 1,500 to 1,600 units of electricity per year. With this, the actual saving for a household would be Rs 9,000 per annum in the electricity cost. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) will help in the survey. Apart from this, other agencies including Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA), the discoms including Torrent Power Ltd and Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (DGVCL) and the civic body will jointly start the survey of households and other properties in the city .

Talking to TOI, municipal commissioner Milind Torawane said, “The civic body is acting as a facilitator. The assessment of the ground situation will be kick-started in the city.There will be a single-window clearance for those intending to install rooftop solar plants“ Torawane added, “Soon, a website for installation of rooftop solar plants and the mobile application will be launched through which the residents can apply . The solar plant suppliers are those who are already empanelled with the SECI.“

