As part of the plan to develop Chandigarh into a solar city, UT administration has decided to set up a solar cell, which would provide consultancy to departments for adding features of tapping solar energy in upcoming buildings. The cell will work for the development for renewable energy projects and energy conservation programmes.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has prepared master action plan for transforming Chandigarh into a solar city. The draft report submitted by TERI has recommended energy efficiency measures of 20% for both residential and commercial sectors.
The project will be mutually funded by the Government of India (GoI) with a matching grant by the administration or Chandigarh municipal corporation, whoever takes up the project. Once the project takes-off, the city will become a model solar city deriving substantial percentage of its energy consumption through renewable energy sources and implementing other energy efficiency measures.
Apart from recommending setting up of solar cells, the report has given broad recommendations for setting up a grid-based 25 Mega Watts solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in segment model by putting up panels in city’s 12 gardens, bigger than 18 acre in area.
The idea is to generate solar energy by putting up panels in various open gardens in the city and then uploading the power to the main grid.
The electricity consumption in Chandigarh has increased manifold and once the system is put in place, solar-based electricity can be increased gradually. Since there is already a well-knit set up of wires across the city, there is no need to have a parallel network for solar energy and it can be added to the main grid.
Under the solar photovoltaic energy programme street lights, indoor lights or portable lighting systems called solar lanterns have been put in different parts of the city as a renewable and pollution free alternative.
Solar photovoltaic technology converts the solar energy into electricity and the capacity of the system can be increased or decreased as per the requirement. The installation of these is also very less time consuming.
