Comm Secy S&T reviews progress on saturation of Solar Rooftops on Govt buildings

Comm Secy (S&T) Saurabh Bhagat chairing a meeting on Tuesday.
Comm Secy (S&T) Saurabh Bhagat chairing a meeting on Tuesday.

Excelsior Correspondent

SRINAGAR, July 30: Commissioner Secretary, Science and Technology (S&T), Saurabh Bhagat today chaired a meeting to discuss and review the progress regarding strategy for saturation of Solar Rooftops on Government buildings in J&K under RESCO mode by NHPC-REL.
Chief Executive Officer, NHPC-REL, Chief Program Manager, REC-India Ltd, Additional Secretary, S&T, Nodal Officers from Forest Ecology & Environment, Home, Law  & Parliamentary Affairs , Jal Shakti Departments and JAKEDA attended the meeting.
During the meeting, Commissioner Secretary took a review of action plan from the NHPC-REL for solarisation of Government buildings across UT under RESCO mode.
He directed NHPC-REL to sign MoU with four beneficiary departments regarding roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders and share monthly progress with S&T Department on monthly basis.
He also advised REC to conduct a Business Investment Seminar in the UT of J&K where investors across the country would be invited to showcase the business prospect in solar sector. He further directed REC to conduct awareness/capacity building programme in collaboration with JAKEDA for hand holding of respective departments about RESCO mode of implementation, methodology of payment to the developer for installation of the rooftop solar power plants.
During the meeting, it was informed that NHPC-REL being a Project Implementing Agency has been given the task of carrying out solarisation of about 2838  Government buildings with a cumulative capacity of about 63 MWs.
The meeting was also informed that Prime Minister’s office has sought a firm commitment from all States and Union Territories to solarize all  Government buildings by installation of Rooftop Solar Power Plants with a view to reduce  energy bills and  dependence of fossil fuels to achieve the renewable power obligations under various national and international commitments. Accordingly, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has nominated REC Ltd. and CPSU-NHPC as the project monitoring and project implementing agencies respectively for the said project.