Karnataka projected to harness 2,000 MW solar power by 2020

The Karnataka government today said it would be able to harness at least 2,000 MW of power from the solar sector by 2020.
"... We are trying to give a projection that by 2020 we should be able to harness at least 2,000MW of power from the solar sector," Principal Secretary to the Department of Power, Amita Prasad, said while addressing a session 'Doing Business with/in Karnataka' here.
"... We are bringing out a new energy policy on the solar aspects of it," she said.
Stating that the government is going in for a revision despite having a policy in place, she said that there is lot of potential for investment in solar parks and the state government is "looking into both grid and non-grid of non-renewable energy".

The state has lot of potential for wind energy and there are more than 900 projects which are going on, Prasad said.
The energy sector and the industry should come forward for the hybrid type of park with both wind and solar. "I am also looking at the potential of solar park especially in the North Karnataka."

Explaining main ingredients of the power policy, Karnataka Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee said, "First of all every single mega watt of energy produced by a solar panel will be purchased by the state electricity board."
"Number two is - a solar panel on the roof of a house will have a meter that will measure what is the total amount of power drawn or given to the grid, so that you will get a bill or a check at the end of the month depending on how much you supply to the grid; this is without any limit," he said.

Commenting on the problems in the energy policy, he said "we supply power free to farmers, so a non conventional energy actually cost more than the normal power average that is there in the hydro and the thermal power sector, so the subsidy burden on the state increases."
"We roughly meet about Rs 7,000 crore on the subsidy to farmers every year," he said.
However Mukherjee said "....This constitutes very small portion of the budget of the state, so we can subsidise little more, we will not place any limit on the non-conventional energy generated by anybody. This will be free market for those who generate their own energy...."

Stating that the next Global Investors Meet (GIM) would be held in October, he said it will be an exclusive event for medium, small and micro enterprises.