Soon, individual households and enterprises in the State
that generate their own solar power on their rooftops and share any
surplus with the State grid can expect to reap monthly cash returns from
their energy utility — or at least a slashed electricity bill,
according to senior government officials. The State
is refining its solar energy policy to encourage households and
entrepreneurs to partly or fully generate their own requirements.
The
refurbished policy will ensure that State power utilities buy every
unit of solar energy produced thus and pay the mini contributors as per a
fixed unit rate, Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee and Energy Secretary
Amita Prasad said at the concluding session of the CII Partnership
Summit here on Wednesday. Dr. Prasad said, “The
government will purchase every single unit generated from any source in
the State. The consumers will get a cheque delivered to them in case of
supply to the grid.” A meter installed in these solar power generating homes would measure the internal usage and contribution to the grid. Neighbouring
Tamil Nadu has a similar plan. Mr. Mukherjee said that this was one of
the power-starved State’s attempts to mitigate the hole its huge farm
energy subsidy was creating, currently at Rs. 4,500 crore and heading
towards Rs. 7,000 crore in the coming years.
Dr.
Prasad said that the State planned to have 2,000 MW of solar energy
capacity by 2020. The policy was ironing out many practical elements of
implementation. The State would be self-sufficient in power by 2016 and
it is now in the process of adding new capacity of 3,000 MW to the grid. To
a query on the Western Ghats, Mr. Mukherjee said that the State would
retain its ecological balance while trying to project it as another
Euromountain of Switzerland or Germany’s famous Black Forest. Karnataka
as partner State for the three-day event is also using the event to
invite investments into its regions. Mr. Mukherjee said that the next
Global Investors’ Meeting slated for October would focus on promoting
micro, small and medium enterprises.
Minister of
State for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda told industry that food
processing industries would be promoted and classified as agriculture
activity. Tumkur and other places were identified for starting large
food parks. Tushar Giri Nath, Secretary, Mines and
Geology, highlighted the investment opportunities in the gold mining and
iron ore sectors. Over 1,000 delegates from over 25 countries participated in the annual summit.
Source THE HINDU
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