Chandigarh 12th September : To make sure that there is the best utilization of green and clean energy sources in the agricultural sector, Punjab government has decided to solarize one lakh of the existing electric tubewells in the state Minister for Renewable and New Energy Sources Aman Arora said on Monday. He claimed that the project could save around 200 crore annually in the form of the subsidy on power, as well as being a significant step to conserve the resources of nature.
“The energy industry is changing in an unprecedented manner and this groundbreaking step will help provide green and cheaper power,” Minister said.With the introduction of this plan, Punjab will avail four major benefits : reduce the burden of subsidy to the budget, reduce the need of electricity, decrease the cost of agriculture inputs and help the environment by replacing traditional power sources with solar energysource, he added.
He told me that the Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) has already solicited bids via e-mail for the selecting of Solar Power Generators (SPGs) for feeder-level solarisation of the grid-connected agriculture pumps.
The government offers free power to 13.88 lakh farmers of the state to use their tubewells that are connected to the grid to provide irrigation.The government also covers the cost of around Rs 7,000 crore as a subsidy which is given to the Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL).
The minister announced that a plan for solarisation of 1 lakh grid connected electric tubewells was sent to the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and it has accepted the idea and allocated the goal of 1 lakh pumps to the state.
Arora said that currently, the tariff for power in agriculture is currently Rs 5.66 per unit.After solarisation of the one lakh tubewells the cost per unit would be much lower, which would result in the government reducing its subsidy of 200 crore annually.
The Union government will offer the government with a subsidy of 1.05 crore per MW.1.05 crore for each MW to fund the building of solar power facilities for the solarisation of the tubewells.PEDA Chief Executive Sumeet Jarangal.He was saying that the program will be implemented in RESCO method through private investment.
Solar power stations of capacity of 215 MW will be put to allow solarisation of 1 thousand pumps with an investment of 1300 crore rupees.Of that, 804 crore will come from private investors, and the Central government as a part will pay 226 crore as a subsidy, he added.
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