Uttar Pradesh to commission 1.5 GW of solar by next year

Share

Uttar Pradesh plans to commission 1.5 GW of new solar generation capacity this year, according to Brajesh Pathak, state minister for the Department of Additional Sources of Energy.

That aim is part of a push towards the state’s target of achieving 10.7 GW of renewable capacity by 2022. At the end of the year, solar capacity stood at 875 MW.

“We are confident … of meeting our target in time,” said Pathak in New Delhi. “We aim to generate 4.3 GW through rooftop solar installations. At present, solar power plants [totalling] 150 MW are running successfully. Tenders for 1.5 GW [of] solar plants have been done and by next year they will be commissioned as well.”

Referring to Uttar Pradesh’s Solar Energy Policy 2017, the minister said the aim is to encourage participation by the private sector to provide investment opportunities to set up solar projects in the state.

Policy content

According to the policy document, Uttar Pradesh wants 8% of its electricity consumption to come from solar by 2022. “For attaining this, installation of 10,700 MW capacity of renewable energy is targeted till 2022, of which 4,300 MW capacity will be achieved through installation of rooftop solar power plant”, the document states.

Last year, the state organised an investor summit during which 46 memoranda of understanding worth more than Rs65,000 crore were signed for renewable energy.

In 2016, the state announced a mini-grid policy to promote decentralized generation (DG), put in place an investment climate to stimulate private sector participation in DG, ensure power supply for nearly 2 crore households, to reduce the investment required for long-distance transmission lines and to reduce line losses.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.