The state’s plans to exploit renewable energy sources to meet electricity demands has inched one step closer to reality with the central government giving an in-principle approval for the 10,000 Solar Homes project. An official announcement is expected soon, said a top government official.
Solar power plants with a capacity of 1kw will be installed on roof tops of 10,000 homes. Solar panels which can generate approximately five units of electricity every day will be installed on rooftops due to the scarcity of huge tracts of land required for solar power plants.
It is estimated that each unit would cost approximately Rs 2.5 lakh, including solar panels and storage batteries. But people using this solar scheme will get a subsidy of around Rs 1.5 lakh.
“We approached the ministry of new and renewable energy to fund the project three months ago. And the central government recently gave an assurance that it will give a subsidy of Rs 81,000 or 30 per cent of the total cost, whichever is less,” said a top official with the Agency for Non-Conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT), on condition of anonymity. ANERT will implement this project in Kerala.
The project was designed to give all 14 districts equal priority for implemention.
“A notification will be issued in a month’s time for selecting houses to implement the project. Even though all districts would be given equal priority, the number of solar power units in each district will be decided after considering the response received,” said the official.
He added that technical verification would be made before selecting beneficiaries under the project in order to ensure that they have enough space for installing solar power panels.
The official said the state government will give a subsidy of Rs 39,000 for installing solar units and has already sanctioned funds for the purpose.
