Meghalaya government has been driving the solar power initiative in the state with a great thrust in order to improve energy access and reduce carbon footprints. Keeping in view with the above and our mission of making Meghalaya power surplus, the
Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma launched the Meghalaya rooftop solar portal of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) at Shillong in East Khasi Hills District on February 18.
It has been initiated to improve energy access and reduce the carbon footprints in the state.
Sangma said: “The state has a long way to go in generating energy from alternative sources. Meghalaya has the capacity and opportunity to harness solar energy and this is where solar projects like these are important for us.”
He also said that the state government looks forward to making this sector grow as much as possible. The state will benefit by using renewable energy and it will also help reduce CO2 emissions.
“People installing rooftop solar panels will have to do zero investment. They will get 40 percent subsidy from MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy), 50 percent from the vendor and 10 percent from MePDCL (Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited). Consumers who install solar panels will pay Rs 2 lesser to MeECL as compared to Rs 6 per unit that they are paying right now. When consumers are not using electricity from solar panels, they will earn Rs 1 per unit from MeECL. Consumers can apply for this Scheme through the unified solar rooftop portal,” Sangma said in a statement.
Meghalaya received the highest sanction of funds from the MNRE among all the Northeastern states with a sanctioned capacity of 70 MW (Megawatt) in the first phase. Under this scheme, consumers will be able to rent their rooftops and sell excess electricity generated from the solar system to local electricity utility. In this way, the ‘consumers’ will also become ‘prosumers’. This scheme will benefit 23, 000 households with a maximum of 3 kilowatts per household. This programme also provides for NET Metering where the power generated is first utilised by the consumers to meet their requirement and excess electricity is exposed to the grid.
