Wednesday, February 19, 2014: In a first in India, the power grids will now be sourced by the people. The residents of Gujarat will be able to sell electricity from their home solar panels back to the grid system in coming weeks. Gujarat is India’s leading solar power provider and the state will allow net metering, which is a major development.
The introduction of net metering is likely to increase the size of new solar power installations and their number will further increase by 50 per cent. The selling solar power back to the power grid will surely compensate for the installation costs. A trial solar rooftop program in Gandhinagar is successfully running , which also provides incentives to rooftop owners who install rooftop photovoltaics (PV).
Madhavan Nampoothiri, the director of RESolve Energy Consultants has said, “If the electricity rates are attractive, the customers can either save money or even make money by exporting the electricity to the grid,” in a Cleantechnica report.
The state of Gujarat is a leader in India and Asia, in the renewable energy field. The state has the first 500MW solar power park in Asia and is also the first to have an energy agency to market a solar power cooker. So far, nearly 80 solar power projects have been commissioned in Gujarat.
