Tuesday, September 17, 2013: Phase-II of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is awaiting the approval of the Union Cabinet. Its launch is subject to the approval of the note that has been submitted to it by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Tarun Kapur, Joint Secretary, MNRE while speaking at the 7th Renewable Energy India Expo 2013 in New Delhi stated that the note was submitted only a few days back.
As per reports by the Business Line, Kapur stated that if the Cabinet fails to approve the note prior to pre-election, then ‘model code of conduct’ will apply as expected on 20 September. After that the government is supposed to get permission from the Election Commission in order to launch the Phase-II of Solar Mission.
The second phase of Solar Mission plans to roll out 10,000MW of solar power capacity by the year 2017. It will be initiated with 750MW. In the month of December 2012, the draft guidelines were issued and the bidding process was supposed to be held in the month of June-July.
The launch is also being awaited by the domestic solar equipment manufacturers for the reason that half of the 750 MW capacity will be covered under the ‘domestic content requirement ’ rule, which requires use of modules with India-made cells.
