UP government offers subsidies to set up solar power plant
In a bid to promote solar power plants, the Yogi government has decided to waive off hundred per cent land registration fees for those willing to set up solar power plants.
In a bid to promote solar power plants, the Yogi government has decided to waive off hundred per cent land registration fees for those willing to set up solar power plants.
Uttar Pradesh has a solar energy potential of 22300 MW which the Yogi government has decided to harness to meet the target of 10700 MW by 2022. Hence the state government is going all out to promote solar power plants by introducing various subsidies for those willing to do it.
Electricity generated by these solar power plants is transferred to the grid, an interconnected network for transferring electricity from producers to consumers. This is part of the state government’s decision to promote private participation in generation of electricity through solar power.
At present, the state has solar projects that are generating 512 MW electricity. Out of this, 280 MW was generated in 2017-18. “To meet the target of generating 10,700 MW of electricity through solar power the state government will set up around 6000 solar plants,” Brajesh Pathak, additional energy minister in the state government, had said recently.
Another major decision that the state government has taken to promote solar power is to provide transmission lines up to 15 km from solar energy plants of 50-150MW capacity. The government has taken this decision considering the fact that transmission of electricity is a costly affair.
It may be pointed out that Gautam Adani, chairman of the Adani group, has pledged to invest Rs 35000 crore in Uttar Pradesh in the next five years. A sizable part of this investment will be in solar power plants. At the investors’ summit in February, Gautam Adani had pledged to set up 1000 mw solar power plant and a 500 mw solar park in Uttar Pradesh.
Gujarat based Adani group’s core business activities include commodities trading, Mundra port operations, distribution of natural gas and renewable energy.
The state government has already come up with a new solar power policy – the Uttar Pradesh Solar Power Policy 2017 under which it intends to provide electricity to every village. Solar power will play a major role in fulfilling this objective.
