More than 2.30 lakh household consumers registered for Surya Gujarat, a solar rooftop scheme, in the last two years, the state government informed the legislative Assembly on Monday, reports PTI.
The initiative encourages the installation of solar panels on residential roof-terraces to generate renewable energy.
The total installed capacity of the registered households is 922 MV. The scheme has reduced electricity bills for consumers and allows them to earn by selling excess electricity to power companies.
The government provides a subsidy of 40% for up to 3 KW and 20% for up to 10 KW of power, with a target of covering 800,000 residential consumers by 2022. The state leads the country in solar power generation under the scheme.
The Energy Minister of Gujarat, Kanu Desai, provided details of the district-wise distribution of the registrations. Ahmedabad had the highest number of registrations with 34,794, followed by Vadodara with 33,918, Surat with 30,918, and Rajkot with 24,118. The government’s response covered 27 out of the 33 districts in the state.
Desai also mentioned that the scheme has received over 1.28 lakh applications for solar rooftop installations until June 2020 through the online portal. He stated that the scheme has been successful in reducing the electricity bills of consumers and helping them earn from selling excess electricity to power companies at a rate of Rs 2.25 per unit.
