Indian ministries to commit to install 5 GW of solar – report

June 6 – Indian ministries and departments are expected to present commitment certificates to develop some 5 GW of solar power capacity on the rooftops of their buildings and on vacant lands over a three-year period.

This was unveiled by Upendra Tripathy, secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), as quoted by the Economic Times. The pledges will be made at a workshop on rooftop solar in New Delhi on Tuesday.

A list provided by the ministry and seen by the ET shows that each of the Ministry of Railways and the Department of Atomic Energy would pledge to add 500 MW, while the Department of Food and Public Distribution would commit to install about 355 MW. In turn, the Department of Defence Production and the Ministry of Steel would pledge to deploy 232 MW and 230 MW, respectively.

According to Tripathy, the MNRE is holding talks with Germany’s KfW Development Bank in an attempt to obtain soft loans of EUR 1 billion (USD 1.14bn) for rooftop solar.

The country has set a target to reach 40 GW of rooftop solar capacity by 2022. Currently, it has just 300 MW of such installations.

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