Gujarat government inaugurates solar rooftop project

AHMEDABAD, June 5: The Gujarat government inaugurated a 5 megawatt (MW) solar rooftop project in the state capital city of Gandhinagar here today. "It is not a single large project connected at a single point, but a tiny capacity ranging from 1 KW to 100 KW, placed on unused roofs of buildings in Gandhinagar," Gujarat Finance Minister Saurabh Patel, who inaugurated the project, said. "The project is the first of its kind in India complying with all international standards and can be considered a milestone in India's rooftop solar sector," he said. "In 2010, the Gujarat state government had accorded an in-principle approval to set up a grid connected 5 MW (5,000 KW) rooftop solar power project in Gandhinagar," he said. "A robust and well documented framework was created with the help of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and an innovative scheme was formulated for implementation," he said. So far, a total 5.43 MW (5,430 KW) capacity has been installed on rooftops of 52 government buildings and 376 private residential buildings, he said. "To implement the scheme, the project was divided into two parts of 2.5 MW each. Further, it was decided that the power generated would be directly injected to the grid," he said. "It was also decided that the selected developer would design, install, finance, operate and maintain the project. Rooftop owners were incentivised," he said. After an internationally competitive bidding process, Azure Power and Avartha Solar (Sun Edison) were selected based on their lowest tariff tenders at that time for 2.5 MW project each, he said. Power Purchase Agreements, between the two companies and Torrent Power Limited, which supplies electricity to Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar were signed in April 2012, he said. Patel also said that the average annual consumption of power of Gandhinagar, including industries is about 27.5 crore units, adding, that after inauguration of this project, solar power generation in the city would comprise two percent of total energy consumption. In addition to this project, the Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) has installed its own 750 KW systems on five government rooftops in Gandhinagar, he said.