Conference on 'Promoting Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Systems in India'

Er Alekhya Datta

CII Convention Centre, Block No. 3, Dakshin Marg, Sector - 31A, Chandigarh

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in association with Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have organized the conference on "Promoting Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Systems in India" on December 23, 2013 at CII Convention Centre, Chandigarh. The conference majorly focused on accelerated deployment of rooftop solar PV systems in India. The forum has also provided an excellent opportunity for various stakeholders to dialogue and share knowledge on technological options for promoting rooftop solar PV systems in the country. More than 150 delegates were participated in this event.

The conference was organized in two parts. The first part was a "Demonstration of Rooftop Solar Web-GIS Tool for Chandigarh", followed by a panel discussion on "Accelerated Deployment of Rooftop SPV Systems: Challenges and Way Forward". The main objective for this conference was to demonstrate of Rooftop Solar Web-GIS Tool for Chandigarh. The Beta release of this tool is now available under www.regisindia.com as: http://regisindia.teriin.org/solar/Solar-WebGIS.php.

The Chief Guest, His Excellency, Shri Shivraj V Patil, Governor, Punjab & Administrator, UT Chandigarh delivered the inaugural speech and said that, "At present, the UT Administration of Chandigarh offers 25 percent subsidy for installation of solar panels in addition to the 30 percent subsidy offered by the Central Government, making it 55 percent". A large group of well known industry experts in their respective fields were participated in the conference.

On the occasion, Mr K K Sharma, Advisor to Administrator, UT Chandigarh said "Technical-Scientific expertise and capital investments are needed to make Chandigarh a model solar city. We would take utmost care of the metering and incentive issues. Also, the industry needs to improve its supply chain management and production techniques".

Adding to this, Mr Santosh Kumar, Director, Science & Technology, Chandigarh Administration, and CEO, Chandigarh Renewal Energy, Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST) said that "In-order to achieve grid parity by 2015, we need to adopt sustainable power generation methods at large-scale and rooftop solar photovoltaic systems will be a new boon in this field. It will pull off unprecedented growth in coming future and has tremendous investment opportunities", he added.

Giving information about Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Systems and Maps, Mr. Amit Kumar, Director, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) said, "Under this system, on the basis of building footprint, gross solar radiation of a city is calculated. For which, firstly a high-resolution satellite imaging survey is carried out and its information is integrated through a channel and then this information is made accessible at an open database platform (website). This technology helps in rooftop-grid connectivity. It has been carried out as a pivotal project for Chandigarh".

Mr Deepak Gupta, Senior Programme Manager, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), called upon "framing right policies and innovative business models for solar power generation, so as to reduce reliance on fossils in the coming future".

About Rooftop Solar Web-GIS Tool for India:
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is currently developing first-of-kind cloud-based Open Source Web-GIS Tool for estimating rooftop solar power potential for Indian Solar Cities. The main objective of this study is to develop a high performing and flexible Web-GIS tool to estimate the rooftop solar power potential for Chandigarh area. This initiative has been supported by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), and the strategic support is being provided by Chandigarh Renewable Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society (CREST), and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

For more information about this on-going project, and accessing the Renewable Energy Geo-Spatial Gateway of India (RE-GIS India), kindly visit at: www.regisindia.com.

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Conference on 'Promoting Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Systems in India'

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