The Tamil Nadu (TN) Government has
commenced the implementation of its ambitious programme to provide solar
powered lights to 3,00,000 ( 3 lakh)
houses in the State.
First of kind in
India..!
Mr. Sudeep Jain, CMD, TEDA - Tamilnadu
Energy Development Agency, said, '' Work on this has been going on in the last
15 days in the Tiruchi district and about 60,000 houses would be lighted in the
current financial year (2012-13). Both the house (Home) light & street
light programme are grid-backed, the first of their kind in the country"
The TN government intends to do it in
phase of 60,000 homes over a 5 year
period. The first phase was to have been completed in 2011-12, at a cost of Rs.
1,080 crore. Under the programme, solar panels would be put up on the roofs
measuring 300 square feet. Each unit would cost Rs 1.80 lakh. As the programme
is meant for rural poor, the entire cost would be to the TN government.
Speaking at a conference on the
‘Dependability of REC mechanism, RPO and power trading in solar industry,’
organised by the ENFUSE (Energy & Fuel Users’ Association), Jain said,
''The TN government was also implementing another programme to energise
1,00,000 (One Lakh) street lights with solar power, at a cost of Rs. 200 crore.
ENFUSE is an organisation which is supported by the major oil companies like as
IOC, ONGC & CPCL and the conference
was sponsored by CPCL.
Net Metering..!
Mr. Sudeep Jain also said, ''The TN
government was also very keen on net-metering*. The two pilot net metering
projects were on - one in TEDA’s own office building & another at
Auroville, Puducherry. When net metering became a reality, rooftop solar plants
could do away with the costly & energy-inefficient battery based
storage.Just as the prices of solar panels have fallen drastically (from $ 2.5
a watt in 2009 to about $ 0.65 a watt now), the prices of inverters would also
fall. The cost of putting up a 1 kW rooftop solar plant had come down from Rs.
2.5 lakh a couple of years back to Rs. 1.5 lakh. If the cost of inverters came
down, the overall cost would come down to less than Rs. 1 lakh per kW. The
rooftop solar movement would take-off then."
(* Net metering enables the rooftop solar
plant can put in surplus energy into the grid because it spins the other
direction when power is being put into the grid, thereby giving credit to the
generator.)
Src: Hindu
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