Today Madhya Pradesh has become the leader in solar power generation in the country.
The MP government has taken various steps for promotion of the solar power generation in the state.
The Rewa Solar Project 750 MW is one such initiative and tagged world’s largest projects. The Rewa Solar Project costs around Rs 4000 crore has started production with full capacity.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan says Madhya Pradesh is fast moving towards fulfilling the target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of meeting 50 percent of the country’s energy requirement till 2030 with solar energy. Every effort is being made in the state to achieve this target within the stipulated time.
More than 5300 MW of solar power is being produced in the state every day. The solar energy tariff in Madhya Pradesh is lowest in the country.
Solar energy is also being given special emphasis from the point of view of environmental protection, Chouhan said.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister for Energy and New and Renewable Energy R.K. Singh laid the foundation stone of solar power park in Shajapur recently.
The State and Union governments have signed purchase contract of 1500 MW capacity from solar power parks of Agar, Shajapur and Neemuch at a cost of Rs.5250 crores.
Farmers are being encouraged to make maximum use of solar energy through solar pumps in the state.
So far, solar pumps have been installed for 14250 farmers under the Mukhya Mantri Solar PumpYojana.
A target has been set to install 2 lakh solar pumps in the next three years.
Madhya Pradesh is developing at the fastest rate in the country in the field of solar energy.
The state government’s focus to connect masses with the solar energy campaign is bearing fruits with farmers installing solar power pumps in farms, roof-top solar power generation in residential houses, etc.
Soon Sanchi Solar City will also become an example in the country.
Not only Sanchi city, every house will be connected to solar energy in some form or the other. Here ACs, coolers, cars, street lights to home appliances will be powered by solar energy.
The letters of award to selected developers and farmers for setting up of Sanchi Solar City Solar Projects along with Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Mahabhiyan (Kusum ‘A’ and ‘C’).
The National Hydro Power Development Corporation is going to set up 8 megawatt solar plant on the hilly area of Sanchi.
The MP government has distributed to letters of award of 14 megawatt to 9 farmers and developers selected under Kusum ‘A’ scheme.
Power purchase contract of 71 megawatt has been done with the power management company of selected solar power producers for setting up solar power plant of about 112 megawatt in 4 phases for power generation from solar energy at more than 900 sub-stations identified by Urja Vikas Nigam in the state.
Kusum ‘C’ scheme is a very good scheme for all including farmers, government, public and environment.
The developers and investors that all kinds of departmental facilities and cooperation would be provided. Orders have been issued for solar energization of pumps of about 1000 farmers.
Farmers will not only get irrigation facility from this but will also get electricity during the day.
Under the scheme, 30 percent central assistance is provided for the installation of solar plants.
Selected developers were given project allotment letters for setting up solar plants of 4 megawatt capacity.
In last 10 years, there has been an 11-fold increase in renewable capacity in the state.
On an average, there has been an increase of 54 percent in solar projects and 23 percent in wind projects every year.
Mega projects of solar energy in the state including Omkareshwar Floating Solar Scheme, Agar, Shajapur, Neemuch etc. will start production of solar energy from next year.
While Chhatarpur and Morena solar projects will be developed with hybrid and storage, which will start production by the year 2024.
The focus is to extend the benefit of the solar power schemes through holding workshops of public representatives at the district level to ensure farmers get full benefits of Kusum A, B, C and other schemes including renewable energy in which the members of Janpad Panchayat will also be invited.
Simplification of Kusum-e scheme has been started on ‘first come-first serve’ basis.
Proposals for 12 MW projects have been received in the new process.
Under the scheme, projects of 110 MW eligible farmers and developers have been selected and 64 MW contracts have been signed, remaining contracts are in the process of execution.
In the year 2021-22 in Kusum-B, 6787 pumps have been installed on the farmers’ fields.
A target of 1250 MW has been set in Kusum-C. Farmers themselves or through developers can earn income by installing solar panels on their land and selling the generated energy to the government.
Various initiatives are going on for promotion of solar power generation like Urja Saksharta Abhiyan, new Renewable Energy Policy introduced, the leading role of Madhya Pradesh is that all government buildings will light with green energy by the year 2027, making the state self-reliant in green energy.
The 600 megawatt capacity floating solar project is being constructed on Omkareshwar dam reservoir of Narmada river in the state in two phases.
The development of Omkareshwar Floating Solar Project (first phase) will attract investment of about Rs. 1600 crore in the state.
For first phase a total capacity of 278 megawatt will be set up for which the letters of award are distributed and it is proposed to be completed by September-2023.
The Omkareshwar project is one of the multi-purpose projects in the country, in which irrigation, hydro-electricity generation is already taking place.
Now along with the production of solar energy, tourism will also get a boost. This project will give employment to around 1000 persons directly during the project construction period and about 300 persons during the project operation period.
The tariff basic custom duty received from this project can be considered as minimum even after the circumstances like costly petrol products, solar panels, other ancillary items, current global inflation level, etc., which will provide a new direction to the world in floating solar project.
The people of the state would also get many benefits from this project.
This will reduce carbon emissions in the energy supply by about 6 lakh metric tonnes.
About 600 hectares of land useful for agriculture and other industries will be saved.
There will be no displacement of any kind as land will not be required.
In the project, only water from the reservoir will be used to clean the solar panels, which will save valuable water.
Apart from this, it will be possible to save the water of the reservoir from evaporation through floating solar project.
Due to reduced evaporation, there will be an annual saving of about 32.4 million cubic metres of water. This amount of savings is enough to meet the daily demand of water for a city like Indore for about 112 days.
Rural Participation
Tribal Women make Bacha village solar-energy rich. Tribal villages are enthusiastically coming forward to help Madhya Pradesh achieve self-reliance in the use and harvesting of solar energy. With self-motivation, the tribal villages have started transforming village life taking innovative steps. The initiatives of the State Government have made the tribal families aware of their interests. They are up to translate into reality the vision of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to strengthen village economy in every respect. The families of Bacha village belonging to God tribe in Tribal-dominated Betul district’s Ghoradongri tehsil have proved that they are pro-active in adopting new technology for their well-being. The Bacha village has earned a reputation across the country as a prosperous village empowered by solar energy.
