Tuesday, August 19, 2014: It’s likely that installing rooftop solar panels become compulsory in Gurgaon new homes, housing societies and commercial buildings. Use of renewable energy can become a long-term solution to the city’s power crisis and the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon has felt the same now.
MCG is planning to change its age-old policies and regulations and link the installation plans to building plan approvals. If this proposal gets cleared, no new house or commercial building could be set up if the rooftop solar panel is now a part of the layout plan. Civic clearance will not be given for such buildings. This rule will soon get extended to all buildings in the city. But the process will start with new buildings, after a final decision is taken.
A senior official in the MCG’s engineering department said, “The power crisis is going from bad to worse and there is no relief in sight. This is the primary reason why we are planning to make it mandatory for building owners to install these solar panels so that they can use it instead of depending on other non-renewable sources of electricity. ” New house and building owners may also get incentives from the corporation in form of tax rebates, because these solar panels are quite expensive. To talk about the minimum rate, a panel with a capacity between 3.5 KW and 4.5 KW that can power a 1BHK home costs about Rs 4 lakh.
A 5-10 per cent annual rebate on property tax will be given to home owners for installing these panels. The department official also said, “Another way to promote this plan is to give rebates to those who have already installed such systems or do so of their own will.” The MCG has been in talks with the Ministry of Renewable Energy to finalise the plan, which may be rolled out with commercial buildings. “Commercial buildings will come under this clause initially as they are the ones that consume maximum power and some of them also operate 24X7,” the official added.
