In a time when entire world is in process of switching its electricity requirements on solar energy, it is high time for the country and State to adopt this natural source of energy at the earliest, said Urban Development Department Minister CP Singh on Friday. Speaking in a workshop organised on Adoption of Solar Energy for Ranchi City: Challenges and Way Forward, Singh said that providing electricity to every household was the biggest challenge in developing countries around the world and this provision is important for their economic development equally.
In the workshop, which was organised in collaboration of Punjab National Bank, Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL), Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA) and Ranchi Smart City Corporation Limited (RSCCL), the Minister said that producing merely 570MW of electricity against requirement of over 2,200MW was not at all appreciable.
“Despite government agencies succeeding in curbing transmission loss considerably, the State is way behind being independent as far as required amount of electricity is concerned. We are losing nearly 29 percent of thermal power during transmission. Moreover, thermal power poses serious threat to our environment. This situation can be averted with people switching over to solar energy for which even government is providing lucrative subsidy,” said Singh.
Urban Development Department Principal Secretary and RSCCL Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Arun Kumar Singh said on the occasion that the government was in process of launching many programmes to curb pollution. “We are starting bicycle sharing system in city soon. Solar energy is being given top priority in building by-laws in State. We strongly believe that smart city emerges only with emergence of smart people and the department is taking so many steps to make Ranchi Smart City really smart which has already bagged top position in terms of planning and execution among 100 smart cities selected so far in country,” said Singh.
RSCCL CEO Yateen Kumar Suman, JBVNL MD Rahul Purwar, JREDA Project Director Arvind Kumar, Ranchi Municipal Corporation Mayor Asha Lakra and dozens of officials from Punjab National Bank, EESL, RSCCL, JREDA and others were also present on the occasion to discuss technical aspects of the issue post inaugural session on the day.
Purwar stressed on steps being taken to promote solar energy in State and said that the solar policy by the government made installation of solar plate over roof-top utterly hassle-free. “Moreover, the government is in process of achieving production of 700MW solar energy in State in next three years which is targeted to be stretched up to 100GW by year 2022,” said Purwar. PNB team, at the same time, presented its various plans to incentivize solar energy installation related loans in State.