The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the Capital on Saturday notified the new Delhi Solar Policy, 2024, rolling out larger incentives and subsidies for people to install solar power systems at their homes and businesses so that they can reduce electricity costs. Under the new policy, the government will look to triple Delhi’s solar power consumption — from 1500MW to 4500MW, which is approximately 20% of the city’s overall power demand — by March 2027.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced the policy and its features earlier this year, and officials said that the policy was notified after the government received all the necessary clearances.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, power minister Atishi said that the government will set up camps across the city to facilitate the setting up of solar panels.
“Our aim is to have 20% of Delhi’s total electricity usage sourced from solar energy by 2027. The Delhi government will also make a provision for power generation assessment. For this, the government will collaborate with certain institutions that will assess the capacity of power generation across Delhi using satellite technology. This will relieve consumers from the burden of estimating the potential power generation capacity on their rooftops. Camps will be set up in different parts of Delhi to facilitate this process,” she said.
On January 29, the Kejriwal cabinet passed the solar policy. At the core of the policy are two incentives. One, a subsidy for people to install solar systems: the government will give a subsidy of ₹2,000 per kilowatt (KW) of the cost of the system. A typical 2KW solar installation costs around ₹90,000 which, with the subsidy, would come to ₹86,000. The subsidy has been capped at a maximum of ₹10,000.
Two, people will be paid ₹1-3 per unit of solar energy they generate. This will effectively help reduce people’s power bills. Additionally, every unit of solar energy generated will cancel out a unit a person consumes from the power grid, effectively further reducing the power they consume from the discoms.
In addition, the new rules also make it mandatory for all government buildings with an area greater than 500sqm to install solar panels over the next three years.
Officials said that the government expects to spend around ₹570 crore towards the implementation of the new policy. “Under the policy, the money that people will spend on installing solar panels that last about 25 years is also expected to be recovered within the next four years because of the additional subsidies that the government will provide for the next five years,” said a Delhi government official, on condition of anonymity.
A second official said that a committee will be constituted under the state power minister to monitor the progress of the implementation of the policy, with a dedicated “Delhi Solar Cell” to also be constituted within the power department.
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