If you are remotely attached to or like to keep up-to-date with the world of solar or aeronautics, there is a good chance you would have heard the name of Solar Impulse. Just to refresh memories, Solar Impulse is a Long Range (LR) solar-powered aircraft project with the aim to demonstrate the extraordinary capability of completing a circumnavigation of the earth using a fixed wing plane powered only by solar cells and therefore bringing glory to the name of renewable and solar energy in particular.

As the name suggests, the Solar Impulse 1 was the first to be built and was a demonstration aircraft capable of flying for about 36 hours. It was a monoplane and flew for the first time in a test flight in December 2009. The Solar Impulse project is piloted expertly by the Swiss Engineer André Borschberg and a Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard. They had initiated the project all the way back in 2003 and by the time the aircraft took flight, the Solar Impulse team comprised of 50 engineers, 100 advisers and about 80 partners. As most projects of this scale, the project is part funded by the Swiss Government and part by private firms such as ABB, Schindler, etc. to name a few. The wingspan of the Solar Impulse 1 was about 63.4 meters with a maximum takeoff weight of 4,400 lb. The aircraft is capable of a cruise speed of 70 kmph with a service ceiling of 8,500m. The first international flight of the Solar Impulse 1 was on May 13, 2011 when the aircraft flew from Switzerland to Brussels in Belgium in 13 hours. In command of the aircraft was André Borschberg at a cruising speed of 50kmph. In comparison to this, a cross-Atlantic flight taken by a Boeing 777 cruises at a speed of about 1000kmph at a service altitude of about 35,000 feet with a positive tailwind. The slow cruising speed of the aircraft meant that it was declared unfit to fly in adverse flight conditions and air traffic had to be routed around the slow moving machine, were among the other challenges it faced. Despite this the aircraft completed its first intercontinental flight in 2012 and then went on to cross the United States in 2013.

Solar Impulse 2 registered as HB-SIB is the successor to the Impulse 2 and took its first flight on June 2, 2014 from the Payerne Air Base. The aircraft featured a larger wingspan at 71.9 meter and a faster cruise speed of 90kmph. The service ceiling of the plane though was same as that of the Impulse 1 at 8,500m. Being a more powerful aircraft than the Solar Impulse 1, the HB-SIB started the circumnavigation around the earth on March 9, 2015. The program was delayed by about 3 years due to a structural failure. The journey around the world began from Abu Dhabi. The Solar Impulse flew primarily in the Northern Hemisphere with 12 planned stops, closely monitored by a control center established in Monaco. The aircraft flew day and night, usually slower at night to conserve power and with pilots alternating between the stops. Poor weather conditions over Pacific and issues with batteries meant that the aircraft took 17 stages to complete the round around the world. It landed in Abu Dhabi back on July 26, 2016.

In the process, the Solar Impulse 2 set several records such as being the first fixed wing-solar powered manned aircraft to circumnavigate the earth. It's flight from Japan to Hawaii lasting 117 hours, 52 minutes covering a distance of 7212km is the longest solar-powered flight, by time and distance. Next challenge up for the Solar Impulse team is to develop an unmanned solar power aircraft and contribute to the fields of communication, observation and surveillance. It is expected the first test flight will be ready by the year 2019.

MYSUN’s take: One of the founders of the program, Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard rightly mentioned that “Our goal is to create a revolution in the minds of people...to promote solar energies – not necessarily a revolution in aviation." At MYSUN we strongly believe that by powering an aircraft that is capable of going around the planet, the project very aptly demonstrates the power of solar. We have already seen spacecraft and satellites using solar cells for power so there is little doubting on the capability of solar. With the cost of building a solar system coming down and government giving the right push, it is clear that solar will emerge as a primary source of power capable of combatting the acute power shortage that our country faces. It is therefore, a matter of when rather than if solar will go mainstream.

Audience like you can play a vital role by becoming a solar ambassador and sharing such unique and powerful applications of solar and motivating your friends, colleagues and family members to take action. So make sure to use the share buttons and bring the right awareness around and motivate those you know to start their solar journey.

With each sunrise, the deadline for achieving 40GW from the rooftop solar PV plants by 2022 edges closer. We have already seen states like Karnataka, Haryana and more recently, Assam set ambitious targets or open tenders in order to push the rooftop solar segment as close as possible to the target that has been set. Joining the aforementioned states is the state of Jammu & Kashmir, where, the Jammu & Kashmir Department of Science and Technology has announced a target of achieving at least 450MW of rooftop solar capacity by the year 2022.

The policy allows the interested residential, commercial or industrial building owners to install systems anywhere in the range of 1 kW to 1,000 kW on their rooftops. For government agencies, the upper limit of 1MW does not exist, and they can get an even larger sized plant installed. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has designated Jammu and Kashmir Energy Development Agency as the agency to undertake the rooftop program and facilitate the sale of power to the state Distribution Company (DISCOM) using Net Metering. The announced policy shall remain applicable for the next 10 years and shall be implemented in accordance to the JKSERC (Jammu & Kashmir State Electricity Regulatory Commission) Regulations.

The best part about the policy is that it invites virtually all consumers, including individual households, industries, government and non- government bodies, commercial, industrial and residential complexes to participate in either a self-owned or through a third party owned Solar PV Net Metering based system. Therefore, you can either choose to install your own solar system or just purchase solar power. To better understand, which of the two options is more financially viable for you, you can always run the MYSUN Advanced Calculator for an instant snapshot, to help you make this decision.

Thanks to Net Metering, consumers who will generate surplus power will see the surplus power carried over on to the next month's bill and subsequently, at the end of the financial year, the surplus power will be compensated for. The policy also notifies that consumers who are interested in participating can approach the Department of Science & Technology or the Government of J&K of the grant of the applicable subsidy from MNRE. Jammu & Kashmir being a special category state, residential and institutional users can enjoy a subsidy of 70% of the solar system cost.

You can find the entire policy available on the JAKEDA site here.

The Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley has just announced the Union budget for the year 2017-18. In the aftermath of demonetization, the budget was anticipated to bring relief to the lower middle class and the underprivileged. The budget is keenly focussed towards helping the rural sector, agricultural sector and re-energising the real estate sector. As expected Digital payments and Demonetisation are in the spotlight with the FM mandating that any transaction beyond Rs 3 lakh would not happen in cash. There is cheer for the middle class as IT rate is slashed from 10% to 5% for those in the slab of Rs 2,50,000 to Rs 5,00,000.

It was expected, given that the Government of India has been a huge propagator of solar power in the country that some announcements will be made to further push the adoption of solar, especially the distributed solar segment given that it is farthest away from the 40GW target by 2022. However, it is a rather dry budget for solar. A couple of announcements that were made included covering 7000 railway stations under the Solar Mission which would see the Railway Ministry target 1000 MW in the next 5 years, which would make Railways the largest solar power producer of the country.

The other important announcement was the Government's commitment towards another 20 GW of solar power under the phase 2 of the Solar Mission. It is not clear whether this 20 GW is an additional capacity to the 100GW capacity that has been earmarked for 2022 or is included in the same. It was later reported that this 20GW is to come from solar park development. Solar tempered glass, which is used in manufacturing cells and panels has been exempted from Customs Duty. There were quite a few interesting announcements that could have an indirect impact on solar. The FM announced a commitment towards building at least 1 crore new homes for the homeless by 2019. Since these homes would need to be electrified too, we believe that it should be made mandatory to use 1kW systems per house, which would automatically see the installed capacity of rooftop solar go up to 10GW. An important announcement regarding complete electrification of villages in India was made by May 2018 and it would not be far-fetched to think that solar could make a major contribution in achieving this via mini-grids and other smaller installations. In addition to it, there was a rationalization of corporate tax by 5% for smaller businesses as well as enhancement in MAT carry forward period from the current period of 10 years to 15 years bringing good news to smaller solar installers. This could give rise to a chain reaction where the installers could pass on some of the benefits to the end user too, leading towards lower system prices.

While the budget may have been rather dry for the renewables industry, there was enough included to keep everyone in the industry interested. Just to stay positive, we would hope that the lack of new announcements is down to the fact that the Ministry wants to focus upon correctly implementing the measures that were announced last year rather than just adding more schemes. We would have loved to see the Finance Minister slightly tweak his budget agenda to "Transform India with Clean Energy" from "Transform. Energise. Clean India."

Image source:Samriddhi.org

Assam Power Distribution Company Ltd (APDCL) has set a target of 250MW capacity of grid-connected solar rooftop plants in the state of Assam within the next 5 years. In an aim to make a stronger push in the direction of achieving that APDCL has appointed RECPDCL as the Project Management Consultant for implementing rooftop solar projects of 10MW capacity. As with every initiative to push solar, the aim here is to reduce the dependency on the fossil-based electricity and make the state as self-reliant as possible. Extra power produced by the plants set up under the scheme will be fed back to the grid.

On behalf of APDCL, RECPDC has invited bids in two categories from the interested solar companies. These bids are for the Category A and Category B, where Category A houses individual projects between 1 to 25 kWp and Category B has projects between 25 and 500 kWp. Both the categories has been tentatively assigned a capacity of 5MWp. It has been made mandatory that anyone who wishes to participate in the bidding has to bid for the category A and subsequently may decide to bid in category B. The tender will not cover government buildings, so the likes of Central or State Government offices, PSUs, Government Educational Institutes or Health institutes cannot be used for installing the panels. The eligible categories are: Residential, Institutional and Social Sector. The building details are below:

The projects will be based on CAPEX models and the bidders have until February 15th to send their bids in. It has been mandated that the project must be completed in 15 months post the date of the award. A single bidder can at best be awarded 40% of capacity in any of the two categories. Net metering and grid connectivity will be in accordance to the current regulatory commission guidelines. Project developers are not just expected to identify buildings and obtaining the requisite permissions, designing the system and commissioning it but also mandatorily have to supply services for maintenance of the plant for five years. A 70% Central Finance Assistance on the project cost is available for the developers except for the private, commercial and industrial sectors.

The tender joins the 1000MW tender floated by SECI as yet another strong example of the efforts that the various government agencies are making in order to make solar rooftop a household name. With APDCL making it compulsory for every bidder to participate in the Category A, it mandatorily pushes the propagation of smaller scale rooftop plants especially for the residential sector. We feel that it is a great initiative to ensure that small scale distributed solar is given a push to involve and bring on board smaller residential players. If you are reading this in Assam and would like to make the most of this opportunity, make sure that you Register your Rooftop with MYSUN so that when the developers are looking for the rooftops for the project, you are able to make the most of the opportunity.

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Image source: Energy Next

If you spent the recent onset of winters in Delhi, you would know the terror of air pollution that the city is fighting against. This is not something conditional to the winters of 2017 as Delhi has been at loggerheads with air pollution for a couple of years now. There was the infamous odd-even move and despite that the particulate levels in the air remain higher than what should be ideal. This pollution has been attributed primarily to the large industries, crops being burnt and increasing vehicles on the road. Needless to say that we need to find a solution. One such solution could be solar bicycles going mainstream.

To fight the problem and threat of air pollution, scientists are looking to build solar assisted bicycles which would help fight not just the pollution but also lighten the traffic on the road. According to a report in The Economic Times, Mr SA Puviyarasu from the Dr N G P Institute of Technology, Anna University has confirmed efforts are being made to develop an eco-friendly solar bicycle to help combat the problem of air pollution. The solar assisted bicycle according to him, has the potential to reduce up to 60% of all the vehicle pollution in India. It may look like an ambitious number, especially considering that bicycles have never been a popular mode of transport in India at least in the metro cities.

The solar bicycle has solar panels that are mounted on the cycle carrier. These panels generate the electricity based on the specification of the panels used and the energy is further stored in a Lead Acid battery. The battery then drives a brushless DC motor mounted on the front wheel allowing the rider to change the speed of the bicycle. You may be wondering that this makes the cycle a fancy e-cycle more than a cycle but the rider can choose to use the motor or not or simply go ahead and pedal his way to the destination. The motor and pedal can both be used simultaneously as well.

Mr Puviyarasu has been quoted as saying the bike can be modified and customized depending upon the need of the user. It is estimated that these bikes will be on the road, sometime next year around 2018. When released, the bike is slated to cost anywhere in between Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000.

image source: LauraW-B

Rooftop solar has been assigned a contribution of 40GW out of the total 100GW of installed capacity under the Solar Mission of 2022. While that number may seem daunting right now, we are already seeing efforts being made both by the central government as well as several state governments in this direction. The 500MW and 1000MW SECI tenders are good examples of how the central government has been taking initiatives in order to push the adoption of rooftop solar in 2017. On the other hand, the initiatives taken by CREST for example in Chandigarh or the recent Re 1/unit incentive that Haryana (HAREDA) announced for rooftop solar plants are steps in the right direction.

Adding to the list of initiates is the announcement of Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd or KREDL that it plans to install 6,000MW by March 2021, revising the old target of 2300MW grid connected Solar Rooftop PV Systems by 2022 in Karnataka. It was reported as far back as  May 2016 that Karnataka was planning to modify its solar policy to achieve the 6000 MW figure. Finally, the change was approved on Tuesday (January 10th, 2017) to help tap the massive 24,700MW solar potential of the state. The current installed capacity stands at 400MW.

Overall, the amendments are in tune with the tariff policy announced by MNRE. It has been mandated by KREDL that 40% of the total solar generation must come from rooftops, giving a huge push to the rooftop segment. Solar Energy, in total should constitute 8% of the overall energy consumption. It has been introduced that the generation would be limited to 200MW per taluk from all sources excluding the generation from rooftop projects. This would encourage a more distributed approach in the power generation capacity in the state, where currently the solar projects are more concentrated in and around Bengaluru. The capacity of solar parks has been limited to 100MW at a single location. The state has also announced establishing a solar energy center for excellence in order to promote innovation in R&D in the space.

MYSUN believes that this is a very positive step taken by the Karnataka government. The consumer tariffs in Karnataka are already on the higher side. Consumers pay anywhere between Rs 6.9/kWh to Rs 8.35/kWh, and these tariffs increase every year. Whereas with rooftop solar, consumers can lock in a fixed levelised tariff of less than Rs 6/kWh for the next 25 years. As per our research, switching to rooftop and distributed solar, all these consumers not just stand to make huge savings on their electricity bills but they also get a very high Return on Investment (ROI). And the incentives announced by the state government will further help in encouraging consumers to go solar. However, it is equally important that KREDL develops an equally effective implementation roadmap so that these incentives don’t just remain on paper.

You can expect the updated policy to be available online at the KREDL website here.

Source of Image: Indian Solar market

After a long wait, SECI has finally released the state-wise list of successful bidders. In the pursuit to simplify solar for the end users, at MYSUN, we have further analyzed this list to develop a much-simplified version, available on request, with a state-wise list of solar installers/developers along with the applicable subsidy and subsidized tariffs for these states. The expert solar advisor team at MYSUN is committed to helping all our clients to get the most competitive solar system from the most suitable solar installer/ developer and help them benchmark each of these installers to get the most out of your solar systems. Our clients can also run our Solar Calculator specially modified to showcase the SECI Subsidy and find out for themselves how much they stand to gain with the help of these subsidies. You can simply Register your Rooftop at our online platform. And our tech team will do a preliminary technical assessment and will then get in touch with these qualified solar installers/ developers and get the most competitive quotes with subsidies for your rooftops.

The 500 MW grid connected solar PV rooftop tender by SECI has generated a lot of interest among the residential, institutional and social customers. As we have experienced on MYSUN, the 30% minimum subsidy that has been offered by the central government is proving to be quite an attractive prospect propelling those eligible, to go solar. While rooftop solar started making financial sense, purely from a returns point of view for virtually everyone who is paying more than Rs 1500 as their electricity bill as you can read here, the subsidy just makes the pie taste even sweeter.

You can read the highlights of the SECI subsidy and how you can avail the Central Finance Assistance if you want to install a rooftop solar in a post we have compiled here. In case you are wondering whether you are eligible for this SECI subsidy, you can go through our specially designed solar tool to help you determine your eligibility as well as our MYSUN SECI Solar Calculator specially designed to give you an overview of your system size, cost, savings, and returns when you avail the SECI subsidy as stated above.

It is worth noting that the subsidy will be arranged for you by the developer and there is no effort that you will have to make on it. SECI has published the list of qualified developers, who have won bids in the SECI tender. You can view the list here and these selected developers will be able to get you the subsidy here. A high majority of the developers here are already partners with MYSUN so when you Register your Rooftop, or if you have already Registered your Rooftop with us, the leads will be shared with these developers to help you get the system with the subsidy. So if you want to make the most of this opportunity and get a solar subsidy via this SECI program, go ahead and Register on MYSUN in case you have not. In case you are just curious to know your solarization potential where no subsidy is taken into account, you can always check out our Solar Calculator here.

If you have been actively following the MYSUN blog, you would have come across Part 1 of our blog series on common myths around solar energy, specifically rooftop solar. The aim of doing these series of posts is to try and reason out and explain some of the common notions that people have in context of solar energy or solar system, or perhaps solar in general are incorrect. This is not to establish, that everything you know about or read about solar is inaccurate or incomplete but simply that everything that you hear may not be the most accurate version.

We captured five common myths and explained them in the first part of this article, and this new piece shall try and cater to five more such common misconceptions. For a more accurate take, you can always head over to our Solar Essentials page that has all the information you need before deciding to go solar. As Alan Watts puts it aptly, ‘A myth is an image in terms of which we try to make sense of the world’. So before you go about building your solar world based on perceptions, let’s address them logically one by one.

Myth 1) Solar panels will damage my roof:

We all love our houses and properties, in fact a lot of effort and financial resources have gone into building it. It would be foolishness to install something on top of it, which could lead to its damage or a collapse. Fortunately, installing a solar panel on the rooftop is not equivalent to landing a heavy chopper on your rooftop. There are various well-proven globally accepted norms for installing solar panels on rooftops without any damage to the roofs. Using mounting rails or even screwing(small puncture) methods have been used quite predominantly.But you should be careful while selecting your solar installer. Read more about different types of roofs and how solar panels can be safely mounted on them here. Most buildings built over the last 20-25 years can be assumed to be safe for installing solar panels. Moreover, if you need some unrelated repair work on the roofs in future, you can get the panels removed, do your repair work and re-install the solar panels. Panels are removable and hence can be easily removed if the roof is to be repaired. On the contrary, solar panels actually protect the roof which they cover from the forces of nature. Add to the fact there are no moving parts and no emission of harmful gasses, solar panels are perfectly safe for your roof.

Myth 2) Solar panels need a tracking system to follow the sun:

It is true that higher the exposure to the sun, higher would be yield from a solar system. However, a solar PV system can work perfectly efficiently without involving a tracking system. Observations show that a tracking system may increase the solar system efficiency by 15~20 % as compared to a fixed or seasonal tilt systems. However, this increment may not justify the additional expense for everyone. It is like adding spoilers to your car. No doubt that it will enhance the efficiency and get you better performance, but it is up to you to justify the additional cost for the benefit. Also, the tracking system needs higher maintenance and replacement cost due to the involvement of an increased number of moving parts.

Myth 3) Installing a solar panel/ system on my rooftop will make my house look ugly:

If you have spent plenty of hours with an architect getting the roof of your mansion, just perfect, it is justified that you are worried about looks. We agree that the thought of beauty being skin deep is not true for houses. However, with today’s technology and the right solar system design and choice of material and workmanship, the solar panels can be installed in a manner so as to ensure that they look great on your roof. Add to that the additional pride that you have of going ‘green’ which can definitely make your neighbors go ‘green’ with envy. Moreover, if you want to keep the look of the building pristine, you may want to consider thin film laminate based solar panels. These will make the panels look as though they are a part of the rooftop only rather than something constructed as an afterthought. Yes, these thin film laminates are more expensive than the usual choice of panels, but they would eventually add value to the property and not to forget, installing them would mean that they pay back the investment within their lifetime alone. There is obviously the option of a shingles like setup that Tesla has come up, more on which can be found here. So, if you are too conscious about the looks, there is a solution for that too, albeit a little expensive one.

Myth 4) When nobody has power at their house, I will have power:

As much as we would love for that fact that you have electricity 24x7 at your place, this myth is well, a myth. With a solar system installed, the only difference between the power that you and your neighbor, who does not have solar installed, is the source of generation. However, if there is a fault in the transmission line or the entire grid is down, and you are using a grid-tied solar system, you too will be forced to have a candle light dinner, with no power. If there is a maintenance work for example being held on the grid, you will not be left untouched by the same and sadly will have to fall back on the generator system to provide you with power till the grid is restored. However, if you are not connected to the grid or using a battery-backed solar system and the power is being supplied and consumed just by your house, you will have the power when the grid fails.

Myth 5) Chinese Solar Panels are bad and if you have them, they will fail:

This is a myth that extends from a reputation that has been built. We have heard the same story repeated in the world of electronics, especially phones, where Chinese phones are labeled as cheap devices, with a short lifespan. However, just like in electronics, even in solar, there are Chinese brands that are doing very well. For example, Growatt, a Chinese inverter manufacturing company has the highest market share in Australia when it comes to solar. Similarly, there are names like Trina and Yingli, which are very well trusted, globally. Just like any industry, there are good players and there are bad players, and that is why choosing a right supplier for the system is important, so that he will pay your faith back and not install a sub-standard system. We have spoken a bit more about the myth of Chinese solar products in our post here.

It is imperative to say here that you need to be diligent while selecting your solar system installer. Once that is done, please be rest assured that your investment in solar will be amongst your best investments ever. We at MYSUN are there to not only help you find the right solar installer but also be there on your side during the system design, construction and for the 25 years long life of your solar system.

With that, we round up our second post on the myths that surround solar. We hope, we are able to bring more and more clarity to you from the world of solar as the series is progressing. Do share your feedbacks, thoughts and comments with us, by mentioning them in the section below or catching us up on our social media profiles.

In a major move to push the adaptation of rooftop solar market and march towards the Solar Mission target of 40 GW by 2022, Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI) has floated a Request for Service (RfS) for implementing 1000 MW grid connected rooftop Solar PV systems for pre-identified central government owned buildings. The tender includes both CAPEX and RESCO models and invites bids from solar installers and developers from across all the states and Union Territories in India. This is by far the largest rooftop tender we have seen in India.

The news comes on the back of the 500 MW SECI rooftop tender that is offering a subsidy of up to 30% - 70% for residential, institutional and social customers for a limited period. Of the 500 MW on auction, 432 MW was awarded to 122 developers. You can read more about the 500 MW rooftop tender here.

Out of the 1000 MW, a capacity of 700 MW has been kept aside for the RESCO ownership model (also known as OPEX), where the developers will both, finance and own the solar system and in the process sell power to the government departments at a fixed cost as per a 25 year long PPA. The remaining 300MW has been allocated towards the CAPEX ownership model where the department or the building will purchase and setup the units on their own rooftops. The statewide bidding for the tender will see the bidders trying to match the lowest bid in their respective states. It is mandated that the winning bidders will sign the Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) and the Engineering Procurement Contracts (EPC) within six months and complete the construction, making the plant operational in 15 months time from the date they are awarded the contract.

SECI to its credit has already identified suitable rooftops for the program, with over 70% of the capacity being kept aside for the Ministry of Human Resources and Development. This would imply that maximum of the systems will be installed on educational and training institutes. Gujarat is expected to be a home to 267 MW of the capacity, with Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Telangana providing a strong push too.

MYSUN’s take on this tender:

• 1GW addition to the solar rooftop market is a great start to 2017 and really sets the stage for more such projects for the year.
• Going by the last 500 MW tender, we expect the tariffs and price of the solar system to get even more competitive. This is primarily on three accounts - one, the module prices are expected to be low in the first half of the year and second, the interest rates are on a downward trajectory and third, the capital subsidy ranging between 35% - 90% earmarked for these projects.
• The largest factor will be the perceived offtaker risk. Since the offtakers, in this case, are government departments, the developers are expected to be a bit more aggressive while bidding.
• The tender allows 15 months from the award of the contract to complete project execution in comparison to only 12 months in the 500 MW tender. This is a welcome step since it will allow the installers and developers more time to better plan and execute the projects. However, unlike the 500 MW tender, the bidders who win in 1GW tender will not get full payments up front and the incentives will be released stepwise as the developer meets the timelines and targets.

More installations will add more confidence and faith into consumers when it comes to trusting rooftop solar. But for India to reach closer to its 40GW target, the government should not just rely on such tenders as most of these are subsidy based projects which mean there is a huge cost to the exchequer. We strongly believe that the government of India should put more focus on making buying and installation of solar systems simpler for consumers. That will have a spiraling effect on the entire rooftop solar market across consumer categories and will surely help India achieve its targets under the National Solar Mission.

Image Source: NPRI

In a bid to push the interest and encourage consumers to go solar, the Administration of Chandigarh has announced a subsidy of 30%, with a target of achieving 50MW by 2022. With costs of solar power anyway at an all time low, this subsidy would only make the grass even greener. Kirron Kher, a famous actress and Member of Parliament speaking at an inauguration of a solar project in Chandigarh supported the move and urged the residents to make most of the opportunity and to invest in rooftop solar.

In an attempt to find out what this subsidy would mean for an average residential customer in Chandigarh, we ran his case through our proprietary MYSUN Solar Calculator. We assumed that the bill of the residential customer is Rs 4,000 and found that without any subsidy, he stands to save up to Rs 609 on his monthly bill. This translates into a Return on Investment of 24.6% annually, without any subsidy. Take into consideration this 30% subsidy that would be available and you are looking at returns in the range 50% year on year, with the total cost of just Rs 22,445. While the figures may seems way too good to be true, they are real.

Apart from this subsidy from the centre, CREST or Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science & Technology Promotion Society is also offering a handsome reward of Rs 1,00,000 award to the RWA that performs the best in Chandigarh in terms of solar, thereby ensuring that there is not just enough interest among individual residents in going solar but also ensuring that there is a strong word of mouth and the neighbours are also enrolled. CREST officials are targeting installations of more than 2,000 residential homes within a year thanks to this incentive. Although Chandigarh ranks on top when it comes to cities with rooftop installations in India on Government buildings, the growth has been slow on private rooftops. This has been primarily attributed to lack of awareness and information among the residents. With an award for the RWA, you would expect a lot of community effort will go into pushing the initiative.

You can also avail solar capital subsidy for schools, colleges, hospitals, NGOs, etc. Please read more about this subsidy here.

While you should anyway register your rooftop on MYSUN when you decide to go solar and we will duly connect you to the right developers and partners in Chandigarh to help you go solar, you can also visit the website of CREST which has more information. So hurry up and make most of the opportunity and go solar. If you are not from Chandigarh, you need not get disappointed as SECI (under MNRE) has also announced a subsidy of at least 30% for all the states and UTs in India, and you can read more about the same here .