Gujarat tops in domestic solar rooftop installations

To achieve renewable power generation goals, Gujarat has topped the list in the installations of solar rooftop plants across the country with about 50,915 systems being fixed on domestic rooftops in the State as on March 2, 2020.

Maharashtra follows with 5,513 installations as on the same date.

Of 79,950 systems installed across the country, Gujarat has topped with 64 per cent or two-thirds of total domestic solar rooftop installations.

“The total capacity of the 50,915 systems installed on domestic rooftops in the State is 177.67 MW, whereas the total systems installed across the country have a combined capacity of 322 MW,” said the Government, quoting Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy RK Singh's written reply to a question in Parliament.

The State government has adopted a solar rooftop scheme — Surya Gujarat — to cover about eight lakh domestic electricity consumers under the scheme by 2022. The Government had also relaxed subsidy criteria for domestic users with up to 40 per cent subsidy on the cost of projects up to 3 kWh capacity, while 20 per cent subsidy assistance is being provided for project with capacity between 3 and 10 kWh.

The State government has also allotted ₹912 crore for the scheme. As per the scheme, the electricity generated through the domestic rooftops is being consumed by the households, while the excess units are purchased by the State discoms at the rate of ₹2.25 per unit.

The State government said more than 1.18 lakh applications were received on the online portal for the domestic solar rooftop installations.