Chandigarh to be 1st Solar City of India

Chandigarh all set to become the first solar city of India

Chandigarh – a prominent city in North India and the capital city of 2 states – Punjab and Haryana is all set to become the first solar city of India. The project of developing solar cities in India was announced by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in year 2012. In a short time spam of 2 years Chandigarh is ready to show its achievement as a full fledged solar city.

The project to develop solar cities in India

A total of 60 Indian cities were proposed to be developed as Solar Cities. According to the plan, there would 4 Model Solar Cities and 10 Pilot Solar Cities. The Chandigarh Administration along with the The Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) took the challenge to develop Chandigarh as one of the Modal Soar Cities of India back in 2012 and have worked hard these 2 years to initiate various solar projects in Chandigarh.

How Chandigarh became a solar city?

The first major solar project came upon the roof of Paryavaran Bhawan in Sector 19 which was set up at a cost of around 90 lakh. This solar plant is producing 65,000 units of electricity per year. After this another major solar plant was set up on the rooftop and open area in Model Jail. The cost of this project was Rs 1.43 crore and it is producing 1.30 lakh units of electricity per year. Half of the amount for solar projects was contributed by the central government.

At present, Chandigarh is generating 2.86 million units through solar panels on the rooftop of various buildings. The number of electricity units from solar rooftop panels will be increased to 6.76 million by March 2015.

The Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) has prepared a presentation to showcase its solar rooftop projects before the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under the ‘Model Solar City’ project. CREST has used special drones to click photographs of the rooftop solar panels upon various buildings.

Image Credits: Chandigarh Tribune

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Ref: Mnre.gov.in/schemes/decentralized-systems/solar-cities/