Roof-top solar scheme to be emulated in Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara and Bhavnagar
In a yet more stride in Gujarat's bid to become a solar capital, the Chief Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate 600 MW solar power generation capacity to the nation on April 19 at Charanka village of Patan district. It is noteworthy that Gujarat government has come up with various initiatives in the field on non-conventional energy sources with a view to promote environment-friendly industrial development. The State has commissioned the Asia's biggest solar park at Charanka village. The park is already generating 214 MW solar power out of its total power generation capacity of 500 MW. The park has been functioning on multi-developers and multi-beneficiaries paradigm and has been awarded for being the most innovative and environment-friendly project by the CII. With a view to make Gandhinagar a solar city, the State government has launched roof-top solar power generation scheme. Under this scheme, the State has planned to generate five megawatt of solar power by putting solar panels on about 50 state government buildings and on 500 private buildings. The State has also a plan to emulate this project in Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar and Vadodara in 2012-13. In a novel initiative, the State has planned to generate solar power by putting solar panels on the Narmada canal branches. As a part of this scheme, the State has already commissioned one megawatt solar plant at the Narmada canal near Chandrasan area of Anand taluka. This has helped to stop 90,000 liter water of Narmada river from evaporating. Apart from this, the State government has also come with the initiatives for exploiting the wind and tidal energies in line with its approach of promoting renewable energy sources in the power generation.