Budget 2024: Rooftop solar scheme to provide 300 units of free power per month
Budget 2024: Rooftop solar scheme to provide 300 units of free power per month
New Delhi: Beneficiaries of the government’s proposed rooftop solar scheme– Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana – will get free electricity of up to 300 units per month, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Wednesday.
During the FY25 interim budget presentation, Sitharaman highlighted that the scheme would enable 10 million households to sell their surplus solar energy. This is projected to yield annual savings between ₹15,000 and ₹18,000 for these households.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on 22 January said the Centre is set to develop a new scheme to boost rooftop solar installations in the country.
State-run REC will be the implementing agency of the scheme and will lend up to ₹1.2 trillion for the installation of rooftop solar panels.
Speaking to the media last month, chairman and managing director (CMD) of REC, Vivek Kumar Dewangan said the company has been designated as the implementation agency for the scheme and its board of directors has approved letters of credit of about ₹15,000 crore each for eight central public sector undertakings that would set up the rooftop panels across states.
The scheme comes at a time when the target of rooftop solar installations of the government has not picked momentum. In May last year, the parliamentary standing committee on energy had said that against a target of 40 GW to be achieved by the end of 2022, only 5.87 GW of rooftop solar projects was installed, which is less than 15% of the target.
Currently grid-connected solar rooftop capacity stood at 11.08 GW out of the total solar capacity of 72.31 GW, according to the ministry of new and renewable energy.
Under the government’s energy transition plans, solar power is expected to constitute 292 GW of the total renewable capacity of 500 GW by 2030.
Currently, the government provides financial assistance for residential solar rooftop projects. To make it more attractive for homeowners, the union ministry for new & renewable energy has recently revised the Central Financial Assistance for residential solar rooftop projects. New beneficiaries can get additional financial assistance of ₹10,000 to ₹22,000 under the subsidy scheme through the national solar rooftop portal.
