E-Paper
Soon, sun ‘light’ to shine bright in Kannauj village
The sun is set to shine on Salempur Tarabangar village of Kannauj district soon as the Non-conventional Energy Development Agency (NEDA) has chalked out a plan to provide uninterrupted solar power supply to the villagers there.
The sun is set to shine on Salempur Tarabangar village of Kannauj district soon as the Non-conventional Energy Development Agency (NEDA) has chalked out a plan to provide uninterrupted solar power supply to the villagers there.
Chosen as a model solar village on the pattern of villages in Maharashtra and Gujarat, Salempur Tarabangar will have uninterrupted power supply for houses, street-lights, tubewells etc 24 x 7 when the project is completed in about 18 months.
NEDA director RP Arora said: “We have planned things out and are waiting for the state cabinet nod. If this solar village experiment is successful then we can take up another village and also provide increased facilities in the villages like setting up solar energy-operated CCTV cameras at main points of public places.”
Spelling out the benefits of solar power, Arora said NEDA wanted to provide facilities, which even urbanites of UP dream of. “All this is being done under the new policy for solar energy adopted by the state this year,” he said.
Exuding confidence on the project’s success, Arora said multinationals and big Indian companies have chosen Uttar Pradesh as their ‘Destination Next’ for investing in the solar power sector. “Eight companies namely Jackson Power, DK Infratech, Moser Baer, Shri Colonizers, Essel, Aszobel, Navketan and Jyoti have proposed to set up power plants at eight different locations of the state,” he said. “We have evaluated the technical and financial bids and forwarded them to the UP cabinet for its clearance. If cleared, these companies would be setting up power plants ranging from 5 MW to 50 MW within 15 months. They would be producing a total of around 200 MW of solar energy,” Arora added.
Speaking on the cost of solar power, he said now, with constant research and technological advancements, producing solar energy had become cheaper. Earlier the cost of production used to be around Rs 25 per unit but today it is about Rs 9 per unit. However, the consumer is given highly-subsidised solar power, Arora said.
