The Tamil Nadu Government will soon finalise a solar energy policy and announce subsidy to support roof top solar energy installations, according to Mr Sudeep Jain, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency.

The policy being finalised will drive the establishment of over 3,000 MW of solar power generation capacity in the State. The Government has also decided to provide subsidy for roof top solar energy equipment. This will be in addition to the 30 per cent subsidy provided by the Central Government’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, he said.

The Agency, which is the nodal body for promoting renewable energy and channelling government support for projects, is also pushing the concept of net metering. Household level power generation facilities can feed surplus or unutilised power into the grid. They will be charged only for the net quantity of electricity they consume. The concept is being tried at the agency’s office as a pilot project and two more test projects will soon go on stream, he said.

Mr Jain addressing a seminar on alternative energy sources organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, said the Tamil Nadu Government has announced a major initiative in solar powered housing and solar power street lights. The Government has said it will provide 3 lakh houses over the next five years with solar lighting facilities. The first batch of 60,000 houses will be completed by October and work on the next phase will start. Similarly 20,000 streetlights will be converted to solar powered, LED lights every year.

The nodal agency is also looking at possibilities of expediting subsidy disbursement by allowing applicants file online.

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