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The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a scheme to install rooftop solar power in homes for an outlay of Rs 75,021 crore, taking up a plan Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced earlier in February.
The PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana will use central financial assistance (CFA) to put up systems that will provide free electricity of up to 300 units every month to 10 million households. “The scheme provides a CFA of 60 per cent of system cost for 2 kw (kilowatt) systems and 40 per cent of additional system cost for systems between 2 to 3 kw capacity. The CFA will be capped at 3 kw. At current benchmark prices, this will mean Rs 30,000 subsidy for 1 kw system, Rs 60,000 for 2 kw systems and Rs 78,000 for 3 kw systems or higher,” said a government statement.
Households can apply for subsidy at a national portal where they can select a vendor for installing rooftop solar. The portal will assist households in their decision by providing information such as system sizes, benefits calculator and vendor rating, said the statement.
“Households will be able to access collateral-free low-interest loan products of around 7 per cent at present for the installation of residential RTS [rooftop solar] systems up to 3 kw,” it said.
The portal, backed by state-owned financier REC Ltd, has 20 banks and non-banking financial institutions that will lend to households seeking solar rooftop systems, ‘Business Standard’ recently. Eight public sector utilities, under the aegis of the power ministry, will support the scheme in several states.
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The Cabinet also approved setting up model villages in all districts of the country for the adoption of rooftop solar.
“The proposed scheme will result in the addition of 30 GW of solar capacity through rooftop solar in the residential sector, generating 1000 BUs (billion units) of electricity and resulting in a reduction of 720 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions over the 25-year lifetime of rooftop systems,” said the government’s statement.
The scheme will serve people who consume less than 300 units of electricity, typically lower and lower-middle-class households in urban areas. “For this economic stratum, taking a loan for solar or setting up solar on their rooftop is difficult. So, we are increasing the loan component and we are designating our PSUs to implement it,” power ministry officials said earlier this month.
Rooftop solar has been lagging as compared to the grid-connected ground-mounted solar power projects. Out of the total installed solar power generation capacity of 73 gigawatts (gw) in the country, ground-mounted (large-scale solar power generating units) is 56.9 gw, while grid-connected rooftop solar is 11 gw and off-grid is 2.75 gw. Power ministry officials said there are some 675,000 household rooftop solar systems in the country.
Global Big Cat Alliance soon
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the creation of the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) to set up a global network to conserve tigers and other big cats. The alliance was conceived as a multi-country, multi-agency coalition of 96 big cat range countries.
Rs 24K cr subsidy for fertilisers
The Union Cabinet on Thursday announced a Rs 24,420 crore subsidy on phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertilisers for the upcoming kharif season and said the farmers will continue to get key oil nutrient DAP (Di-ammonium Phosphate) at Rs 1,350 per quintal.
(With inputs from PTI)
