Anmol Singh Jaggi, Director, Gensol Group said “With a thrust on smart cities and identification of 99 cities under the ambitious Smart city mission will give a major boost to the clean energy sector as Smart Cities have a large component of Renewable Energy.
Smart Cities Mission aims at building 100 smart cities with state-of-the-art amenities that incorporate renewable and natural resources with great emphasis. It is a clear indication that the focus on ‘green energy’ is one of the top priorities of the government. It will also boost the solar rooftop industry.
These cities will be enabled by various projects like Smart Command and Control Centre, Smart Roads, Solar Rooftops, Intelligent Transport Systems, Smart Parks. Projects worth `2350 crore have been completed and works of `20,852 crores are in progress. We expect will create a platform for the Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) industry as well.
With the aim – ‘Power for All,’ the government is determined to not leave any stone unturned in its target of meeting 100% electrification by 2018 as in the budget, it has been announced that there will be an increase of 35% of expenditure allocation to rural electrification schemes.
We are happy that government has highlighted the benefits and advantages of solar-generated power and has acknowledged its practicality. The budget has announced the second phase of solar development of another 20,000 MW that will surely prove to be a major push for India to be one of the leaders in the global solar industry. Besides their commercial and individual uses, solar power has also been beneficial to Indian Railways as well as the peripheral railway infrastructure will be solarised.
In the rural areas too, farmers are switching to use of solar power for pumping and irrigation purposes. In the Budget, Government has also taken appropriate measures to encourage the initiative and has announced that the State Governments will formulate a mechanism where the distribution companies or licensees will purchase the farmers’ surplus solar power at the reasonable remunerative rate.
Even though there has been a 6 percent excise duty on solar tempered glass has been proposed, the basic customs duty on the solar tempered glass for use in the manufacture of solar cells, panels and modules have been proposed to be eliminated.”