Gujarat to become 1st state to launch ‘Agro-Solar Policy’

Gujarat is set to become the first state in India to launch ‘Agro-Solar Policy’ to encourage the farmers to tap the solar energy.
The new policy seeks to encourage the farmers in the state to tap free solar energy from sun, which will in turn help them to earn additional income from power generation companies.
Key facts

• Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI) will be nodal implementing agency for projects under this policy.
• Farmers can use the free solar energy for their own consumption purpose and sell the surplus energy to the state run power generation companies.
• Thus, power generation companies and farmers will be in a win-win situation with generation of solar energy in agricultural fields.
• Power generation companies will set up solar photo voltaic (SPV) plants in different agricultural fields for the purpose of power generation without disturbing agricultural production.
• It should be noted that these SPV plants have been already tested in different agricultural universities in the State.
• On the experimental basis power generation companies like Gujarat Industries Power Company Limited (GIPCL), Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) and Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) have already set up SPV plants in farm fields
• The SPV plant will be set up on poles in the fields so that farmers can also grow their crops.
• After buying surplus power, power generation companies will give 30 to 40 per cent share from the profit to the farmers.

Some other successful solar projects in Gujarat

• State has Asia’s largest solar power plant in Charanka village in Patan district which is built on a 2,000-hectare land.
• In January 2015, the first canal-top solar power plant (10 MW solar capacity) was inaugurated by UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon on Narmada canal in Vadodara.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2015