Tannuka Juneja
Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Bhagwant Khuba launched a rooftop solar awareness campaign across India at an event in Bidar, Karnataka on Saturday. Speaking at the occasion, Khuba said rooftop solar provides an opportunity for the common man to help mitigate global warming and climate change.
He said the campaign titled “Ghar ke upar solar is super” aims to raise awareness of rooftop solar panels among local governments, citizens, RWAs and municipalities.
Khuba said the ministry is working to achieve the target of 500 GW non-fossil by 2030. He added that rooftop solar will play an important role and the cities most likely to achieve this target will be Tier 2 and 3 cities. He said that Karnataka alone has the capacity of 1 GW of rooftop solar power.
The minister informed that the ministry provides a 40% subsidy to households to install solar energy. He then urged people to use the subsidy from the central government to install the roof. The minister said that he had asked to install solar panels on the roof of his house in Bidar.
Karnataka Minister V Sunil Kumar highlighted the PM-KUSUM scheme and urged farmers to take advantage of the facilities provided by MNRE and the state government. He said that through this project, farmers from the Center and the state will get a 30 percent subsidy for the installation of solar pumps.
NSEFI, with the support of the German Solar Association (BSW) and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the Sequa KVP Programme, is launching a 3 year long, Pan India Rooftop Awareness Program aimed at increasing awareness of solar rooftops among 100 Indian towns and cities, especially tier 2 and tier 3 towns/cities.
