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The Gujarat government has announced a nine-month extension for its Gujarat Solar Power Policy -2015, till December 2020.
With the extension of the policy, which was due to end in March 2020, entrepreneurs and solar power project developers will get an extended window of nine months to set up projects and avail the benefits under the policy.
State Energy Minister Saurabh Patel said the decision is part of the Gujarat Atmanirbhar Package to revive the State's economy, and will help it achieve the target of setting up 8,000 MW of solar power generation capacities by 2022. This will provide a further boost to the Clean and Green Energy call given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added.
The policy, announced in August 2015, was seen as a step to decentralise solar power generation and aimed at encouraging investors to set up megawatt-scale solar projects under solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies. The policy — the second after the one announced in 2009 — also aimed at encouraging smaller generation units, mainly kilowatt (KW)-scale solar projects in the form of solar rooftop systems. The minimum size of a MW-scale project was fixed at 1 MW and that for a KW-scale project was kept at 1 KW.
Further, the extended window of policy period will help State power distribution companies to meet their renewable power obligation (RPO) targets, said Patel.
He added that the nine-month extended period will enable solar power developers engaged in captive power projects, third party cell makers, roof top projects for MSME units, industrial, commercial and government units as well as residential roof top projects to execute projects under the scheme.
Patel also said the State has emerged among the top players in the solar power generation in the country and achieved an installed renewable energy capacities of 3,057 MW, against the target of 10,711 MW.
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