Residential buildings to have rooftop solar panels 

Residential buildings to have rooftop solar panels 

The Puducherry Government has prepared a roadmap to accelerate the installation of rooftop solar panels on residential buildings in the Union Territory and has set a target to achieve 225 MW of installed capacity of renewable energy by the end of December 2026.

To start with, the government has proposed to cover 50,000 residential households in Puducherry from January 2024 to December 2024. This is in addition to the installations planned on government buildings and other buildings.

According to a senior official, the plan is to give a major push to solar photovoltaic technology to make Puducherry more reliant on renewable energy. “Puducherry currently has a total installed capacity of 48.295 MW of solar energy. This includes installations on 585 buildings, including 382 residential buildings (2.026 MW), 38 Government buildings (5.47 MW), and 165 other installations (40.799) aggregating to 48.295 MW.”

“Based on the total roof top area in the U.T., it is estimated that it would be feasible to install roof top solar in around 1.5 lakh residential buildings, aggregating to a capacity of 225 MW by December 2026. The proposed targets and installed capacity will amount to 398 MW, constituting 73% of the total peak demand (540 MW) of the U.T.”

At present, rooftop solar plants have been installed on as many as 38 government buildings in the city. The government has identified about 852 government buildings (both State and Central government) for the installation of rooftop solar , which has a capacity of of 35 MW. “We have planned to cover all government buildings through the RESCO (Renewable Energy Service Company) model by December 2025,” the official added.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has also increased the subsidy amount from ₹14,588 to ₹18,000 per KW for rooftop plants with a capacity of up to 3 KW. For above 3 KW and up to 10 KW, the subsidy has been increased from ₹7,294 per KW to ₹9,000 per KW.

With a 3 KW rooftop solar plant, a consumer could produce 400 units of energy per month. Households producing energy in excess of consumption needs can transfer the units to the Electricity Department, which would offset it against the bill.