News Karnataka
Friday, March 29 2024
Cricket
Bengaluru

“Build an extra floor with solar panels on the rooftop”

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Bengaluru: Energy Minister D K Shivakumar said on Wednesday, that the State government will permit construction of an extra floor, as an incentive for people to instal solar power panels on the rooftops of their houses.

The Energy Department is holding talks with the Urban Development Department in this regard. Builders will be allowed to construct an extra floor under the building bylaws if they show interest in installation of solar panels on the rooftops, the minister said at the inauguration of the rooftop photovoltaic solar power system at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, that aims to generate 1,700 units a day.

The stadium is the first such facility in the country to instal solar panels. Under the Indo-German environmental partnership, the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) will set up two solar panels. The eastern phase was inaugurated on Wednesday and is expected to generate 440kV.

The western phase, which will generate 850kV, will be completed soon. The KSCA aims to generate 5.9 lakh units a year and sell four lakh units to the grid. As the next step, it is installing a sewerage treatment plant to recycle and reuse sewerage water.

“We have requested the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to supply us sewage water from the neighbouring areas which we can use for watering lawns,” said Brijesh Patel, Secretary, KSCA.

The solar panels at the stadium have been installed by RenXSol Ecotech Private Limited. All works were completed 15 days before the first IPL match was played in Bengaluru.

Shivakumar spoke about the need to explore solar and wind energy to fulfil the increasing requirements. He said that generating one MW of thermal power required an investment of Rs six crore. “So, the next best alternatives are solar and wind. To generate 300 MW solar by farmers, we received 26,165 applications. If permission is given to all, we could generate one lakh MW of solar power, but we have permission to generate only 1,000 MW,” he explained.

According to the minister, the government wants to generate an equal amount of thermal and solar power in the next three years. “To generate wind power, permission was given for 12,000 MW. Of this, we found that in case of 4,000 MW, applicants didn’t install windmills. So their applications have been cancelled,” he said. Shivakumar made it clear that the government won’t privatise power generation but would give subsidy in installation and selling to grid provision.

Pankaj Kumar Pandey, the Managing Director of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), said that solar power had been accepted well in Bengaluru. So far, 23 organisations have installed solar panels to generate 768 MW and permission is being given to 110 others.

Some of the major institutions where solar panels have been installed are Bescom corporate office, Christ University, St Joseph’s College, Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind and the National Institute of Advanced Sciences, he added.

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