January 7, 2015: The Union Urban Development Ministry has taken an important step towards enhancing India’s solar energy production, with a target of producing 100MW over the next two years. As a part of this, the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Solar Power Corporation of India (SPCI) to achieve the target, which in turn will be capable of powering 25,000 households, converting to a connection of 4KW for each.
Added to this, the SPCI will install solar photovoltaic projects on the rooftops of 629 buildings owned and maintained by CPWD. According to reports, a ministry official has said that the roof area including all the buildings total to 16,76,233sqm, out of which 60 per cent can be used for these installations and as a result power these buildings. Initially, solar panels of 1MW capacity each will be installed over central government buildings in New Delhi including Nirman Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan, IP Bhawan, Vidyut Bhawan and Shram Shakti Bhawan among others over the next six months.
As per the proposal, the roof-mounted solar power generation in different States will be 17MW in Delhi, 0.8MW in Punjab, 0.9MW in Jammu and Kashmir, 9.3MW in Uttar Pradesh, 1.10MW in Uttarakhand, 43MW in West Bengal, 1MW in Jharkhand, 2.5MW in the northeast, 1.7MW in Maharashtra, 3MW in Gujarat, 1.5MW in Madhya Pradesh, 0.5MW in Tamil Nadu, 2.6MW in Andhra Pradesh, 3.8MW in Karnataka, 0.7MW in Kerala, 1.4MW in Telangana, 6.8MW in Rajasthan and 2.7MW in Bihar.
