Thursday, July 17, 2014: The state government’s plan to tap solar energy as a clean alternative source of energy, has hit a roadblock. The reason behind this roadblock is non-cooperation of private house owners, who are reluctant to lease out their terraces for longer duration.
The government decided to go for the rooftop solar panels for producing power for the residential and commercial purposes but it the project became ineffective due to the higher installation costs and shorter duration for which these terraces were leased out by owners.
This issue came up after Bayad MLA Mahendrasinh Vaghela asked power minister Saurabh Patel to tap solar energy. Patel replied, “The government had given approval to 81 private players for producing 948.5 MW power, out of which 71 are currently producing 833 MW power in the state. Currently 237 MW is being produced in three districts- Patan(311 MW), Surendranagar(196 MW) and Kutch(130 MW)”. He said that the rates are also revised and fixed by GERC (Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission ).
For the initial years, rate was fixed at $0.21 per unit which was changed to $0.14 in 2013 and later $0.13, informed the minister. The opposition alleged that higher were fixed to benefit the private players, to which minister replied that tariff in state was lower than proposed by central regulation commission.
