Chandigarh eyes 75 MW solar power by Dec-end

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 18

The UT Administration has now set the December-end deadline for achieving the target of generating 75MWp (Megawatt peak) solar power. It had failed to meet the previous deadline of August 15 last year.

To make the UT a model solar city before 2030, the UT Administration has planned to install rooftop solar power plants on all government buildings by the end of this year and on all private buildings by 2026.

It has so far achieved 66.45 MWp power generation.

Grid-connected rooftop solar power plants have been installed on 4,633 government and private sites in the city. This has helped in producing 250.45 million units (MU) and a reduction in 1,72,811 MT CO2 till January 2024.

Paryavaran Bhawan, Burail Jail complex and all government schools are net zero in terms of fulfilment of their energy requirement through solar power. Paryavaran Bhawan is the first five star rated building in the city as per the Bureau of Energy Efficiency Standards.

To install solar panels on the rooftops of all government houses, the Chandigarh Renewable Energy and Science and Technology Committee (CREST) has recently written to the UT Engineering Department to increase the sanctioned power load of all those houses, which have load less than 2 kW. There are many government houses with sanctioned power load from 0.5 to 1 kW.

According to officials of CREST, a solar power plant would be viable only at a house with the sanctioned load of, at least, 2 kW.

With the installation of rooftop solar power plants on the remaining government houses, the authorities aimed at harnessing nearly 5MWp solar power, said officials, adding that they had set a target of installing solar power plants atop all government houses by the end of this year.

There are a total of 5,611 government houses of different types in the city, of which solar plants have been installed atop 2,782.

4,633 plants installed

The administration has achieved 66.45 MWp solar power generation so far. Grid-connected rooftop solar power plants have been installed on 4,633 government and private sites in the city. This has helped in producing 250.45 million units.