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2ndAnnual Roof top Summit 2018

Introduction

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Punjab is located in the northern part of India and with 592.35MW of commissioned solar energy; it is one of the most active states when it comes to pushing solar. It is a result of this that the financial year 2016/2017 saw 187.29 additional solar powers being commissioned. The state has a solar potential estimated at 2810MW. Punjab has been a home to some record-breaking solar power plants with the World's Largest Single Rooftop solar plant located in Beas Dera. The plant was inaugurated in the year 2016 and has the capacity to produce 11.5MW. The project will help abate 4 lakh tonnes of Carbon Dioxide in the next 25 years. The centre has set Punjab a target of 40,000MW of power from renewable sources to be produced by the year 2022, of which solar will play a significant contribution. Another feather in the cap of Punjab is the solar power plant located in the Mansa district with the capacity of 31.5MW, making it the largest single location solar power plant. This plant is spread over an area of 173 acres and is 250 km from Chandigarh. In the month of November in 2016, Adani Enterprises commissioned Punjab's largest solar plant of 100MW.

The Chandigarh Administration is equally dedicated in development of solar rooftop projects in the city and is designated as a model solar city by the MNRE. The administration has installed about 5 MW of rooftop solar photovoltaic plants in the city on government buildings. The Chandigarh administration is now eager to facilitate the proliferation of solar rooftop photovoltaic projects in the city of Chandigarh in the domestic and commercial consumer category and wishes to establish more demonstration projects of identified capacity with the support from MNRE.

Nationwide, there have been several efforts at the policy, regulatory and implementation levels for solar rooftop deployment. For a long time, the country witnessed solar installations with the help of Government funding, which has now started evolving to various public-private partnership (PPP) and private sector-based models. However, the net capacity of such projects has till now remained limited, especially compared to the regulatory and procedural efforts undertaken to realize such projects. With dramatic reduction in PV prices over the last couple of years, we are entering an era of 'grid-parity'. This presents a whole new opportunity for the country, the sector and the market. However, in order to realize widespread solar rooftop deployment opportunities, the implementation process for each stakeholder needs to be clear and simple.