Harness solar energy for domestic consumption: Punjab Gov

Presiding over a high-level meeting to review the untapped potential of solar energy, the Punjab Governor said every household across the state should be encouraged to have Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) Panels on their rooftops to augment such energy generation, an official release said.

He opined that solar energy should be made a mass movement to meet the power supply in domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors besides being used by religious institutions and shrines.

Patil underscored the need to encourage manufacturers of SPVs to set up their units in the state in order to ensure sufficient supply of these panels.

Solar energy could also be tapped with the installation of SPVs along the banks of the vast canal network in Punjab.

The state government should make it mandatory for all public as well as private buildings, especially upcoming housing clusters, to have SPVs, he said.

Appreciating the New and Renewable Sources of Energy (NRSE) Policy, 2012, framed by the state government, the Governor said it was deftly crafted to dispose of the biomass in an efficient manner by generating power from agricultural waste.

He also asked Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to send a high level delegation comprising officers of Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) and experts in the field of non-conventional energy to study the use of solar energy in Germany and China.

Patil assured the Chief Minister that he would soon take up the matter with Union Government for giving special subsidy over and above the currently available to popularise the concept of solar energy amongst the people in the state.

Badal apprised the Governor of the steps being taken by the government to make solar energy mandatory in public and private buildings.