Thursday, February 27, 2014: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has reportedly launched a comprehensive solar plan for 60 cities. The plan is called the ‘Solar Cities Initiative’, which specifically aims at conversion of 10 per cent of electricity produced to renewable means, with Mumbai as one of the major listed cities.
The finance capital and the largest consumer of power in the state of Maharashtra, Mumbai is listed in the Solar Cities Initiative, with an idea to improve the energy structure of the city. An independent think tank, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), along with a few local bodies, has supposedly submitted a proposal to the central and state authorities for the ‘Mumbai Solar Mission’. The mission suggests various innovative options that the government can implement to incorporate solar energy into the city’s power scheme, said a DNA India report.
Rishi Agarwal, a research fellow at the ORF and also a contributor to the proposal said, “We have no dearth of sunlight. Germany is known to have taken up renewable energy on a warpath, but we should have beaten this country which has an average of 72 days’ sunlight a year. The government has to create a comprehensive framework to introduce solar energy in the city, but, in the meantime, it can encourage smaller projects for individual consumption,” in the same report.
Aditya Khandekar, another researcher at ORF and contributor to the proposal added that “the cost of electricity is about Rs 7 per unit right now, and solar is almost there. A 1 KW solar installation would cost about Rs 80,000 on an average, which has a life of 25 years. In the first five years, you get what you spent back in terms of electricity savings and then it (power) can be considered free for the remaining 20 years.”
The proposal sorts various sun-exposed areas in the city, which include government / municipal buildings, railway stations, bus stations, residential and commercial buildings with large roof areas, for solar installations. It suggests further subsidies and incentives to private organisations, slum dwellers and residential buildings to install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels for their own use, as against the already provided terms.
Solar constitutes less than 0.1 per cent of the total energy produced in Mumbai. The city’s energy demands are approximately 3,000 MW per year and with the new Solar Mission, Mumbai is likley to generate at least 10 per cent of the total energy via renewable means.
