Gurgaon has crossed its installed solar energy capacity target for summer, which was set at 5MW. Officials of the Haryana Renewable Energy Department (HAREDA) said the district’s installed solar power capacity has crossed 12 MW (as of last week) and they are all set to achieve the 20 MW milestone by August.According to officials, the major chunk of the installed solar capacity comes from commercial buildings driven by the state’s Solar Power Policy 2014 that mandated necessary installation of solar water heaters in buildings above 500 square yards.
The major force in the residential area has been the net-metering policy and the subsidy on it.”We have taken a lot of initiatives in terms of increasing the awareness and streamlined our application process for solar power panel installations. Besides the state government’s policy has been a big boost along with the subsidy,” additional deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh told TOI on Wednesday.Gurgaon is the second district in Haryana, where a gird-connected net metering solar panel was launched by the Union minister of renewable energy in February.
With respect to net metering, officials said they have seen a lot of response and already received more than 50 applications in the last five months. ”
The process defined by the government for the application and installation is time consuming. Keeping that in mind, the numbers are very encouraging,” said Rameshwar Singh Jangir, project officer of HAREDA (Gurgaon).”There is an increase in consumer awareness and the office is getting at least 8-10 queries every day for solar power panel installations, which is beyond the queries registered at the single window for net metering and solar installations at the Rajiv Gandhi Renewable Energy Park,” he added.The window was setup with an aim to push the use of solar power panels among city residents. At the same time, a slew of initiatives were also announced.
Singh said the number of solar connections is only set to increase with the district administration’s push on solar power, and the department plans to hit the 20 MW milestone by August. Meanwhile, there are plans to hold a special program with the industrialists to push the use of solar power among them.