There is a large potential available for generating solar power by tapping on unutilized space on the rooftops of buildings. Solar power generated by each individual household, industrial, institutional or any other type of buildings can be used to partly fulfil the needs for it.
In India, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the scaling up of budget for the implantation of Grid Connected Rooftops systems over a period of 5 years, up to 2019-2020 under the National Solar Mission (NSM).
The capital subsidy of 30% will be provided for general category States/UTs and 70% for special category states.
No subsidy will be provided for commercial and industrial establishments in the private sector since they are eligible for other benefits such as accelerated depreciation, custom duty concessions etc.
To achieve the target of 40,000 MWp by 2022, industrial and commercial sectors will be encouraged to make installations without subsidy- as this will create the market and build the confidence of the consumers.
This will enable the balance capacity through market mode to achieve the proposed target.
On the national level the government has revised the target of the National Solar Mission (NSM) from 20,000 MWp to 1,000,000 MWp by 2020. Then again, the 40,000 MWp from which, is to be channelled from the grid connected solar rooftop systems.
This approval will thus boost the installations in a big way and will act as a catalyst to achieve the goal of 40,000 MWp.
With this new initiative, India will emerge as a major country utilizing the roof space for solar rooftop systems on such a large scale. This is in addition to the Convention on Climate Change (COP21), held last year in France which India had a partnership with 19 countries and 28 of the world’s richest investors with the aim to curb climate change though great investment in clean and sustainable energy in the years to come.
In addition, there are still environmental perks attached to this initiative. This will help in the abatement of about 60 million tonnes of Carbon dioxide yearly and therefore aids India in its efforts to mitigate the effect of climate change.
Image from Hiroo Yamagata– CC BY SA 2.0
