Srinagar: Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta Wednesday announced 65 percent government subsidy on rooftop solar panels and 80 percent subsidy on solar powered pumps.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that inaugurating the week-long mega Solar Expo at Kashmir Haat, Exhibition Ground here, Mehta appreciated J&K Energy Development Agency (JAKEDA) for organising the expo saying that the initiative would immensely help in raising awareness among the people about the benefits of rooftop solar plants and other beneficiary oriented schemes.
The expo being held from May 17 to May 23 is being organised by JAKEDA in collaboration with multiple vendors of renewable energy industry and other line departments of Jammu and Kashmir.
The chief secretary asked the JAKEDA to organise more such awareness camps and expos across other parts of J&K so that people there would know about rooftop solar plant, KUSUM scheme and its financing pattern and benefits.
He said that renewable sources of energy hold the future and the government envisions a future with reduced dependence on fossil fuel by promoting renewable energy sources.
Mehta said that besides reducing carbon emissions, the generation of solar energy through rooftop solar programmes would also offset power requirements of domestic consumers in J&K, thereby aiding Power Discoms to provide quality power to the rest of the consumers.
He said that these were the major initiatives aimed at reducing the dependence of people over fossil fuels for energy.
The chief secretary said that ultimately the future belongs to renewable energy.
He said that the energy, besides clean and less hazardous, was cost-effective for the people.
Mehta encouraged them to readily adopt this futuristic technology for both their domestic and agricultural purposes to save their resources and environment as well.
Commissioner Secretary, Science and Technology, Saurabh Bhagat said that the department was making concerted efforts for the promotion of both these schemes. He said that under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, GoI's schemes, domestic electricity consumers across J&K could install rooftop solar PV plants for electricity purpose and could also avail the benefit of installation of solar powered pumps under PM-KUSUM to fulfill their irrigation needs.
The official spokesman said that under this rooftop solar scheme, a subsidy upto 65 percent was being provided to consumers for installing solar photovoltaic rooftops.
The solar rooftops are available from 1 KW to 10 KW capacity and five years free maintenance is also provided to the consumers.
The spokesman said that the Centre launched the PM-KUSUM scheme to increase the income of farmers and provide sources for irrigation for the upliftment of the agricultural sector.
He said that the government intends to provide maximum benefit to farmers from this beneficiary oriented scheme.
The scheme allows the farmers to install subsidised solar powered pumps upto 10 HP capacity for irrigation purposes with a choice of AC/DC surface and submersible pumps.
Under the KUSUM scheme, the Centre and the J&K government provides a subsidy of upto 80 percent while the beneficiary or the farmer has to bear only 20 percent cost of the machinery to avail the benefit of the scheme.
