Punjab New & Renewable Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia today urged the financial institutions and banks to provide easy credit to solar power developers in the state besides launching a special package for solar rooftops.Presiding over a meeting with leading financial institutions and banks namely IREDA, Power Finance Corporation Ltd., L & T Infra Finance, IDBI, ADB, NABARD, Bank of India, Tata Power Solar along with Sh. Anirudh Tewari, Principal Secretary, Power & NRE & CEO, PEDA, Mr. Majithia informed that Punjab has taken major initiatives in launching innovative programmes in the New & Renewable Energy Sector with the purpose to enhance Clean & Green Power Generation capacity in the state. He pointed out that the state was actively promoting and facilitating the setting up of ground based, rooftop based, canal top based / reservoir based solar PV power generation systems.
The Minister revealed that the state’s present NRSE power generation capacity was 811 MW and it was planned to take this capacity to 5400 MW by 2022. A major initiative of launching the farmer scheme for solar power generation of total capacity 500 MW was highlighted. He called upon the senior officers of banks/ financial institution to actively participate in the state’s initiative in Renewable energy which has an estimated investment potential of 33000 Crore & out of which 23000 Crore was the financing requirement for setting up of these NRSE projects.Mr. Majithia invited all the financial Institutions of New Delhi to come forward with innovative solution to provide excess to credit for Development of RE projects as it was the vision of the Prime Minister , Mr. Narinder Modi to have 100 GW of Solar power capacity in the country which can only be possible with active support of financial institutions and the institution should encourage and provide in financing high quality solar panels and other equipments. He specifically emphasised on providing an exclusive financial product for supporting the rooftop projects under net metering as the future for the country lies in every household establishment institutions generate its own clean and green energy.
This will also help in providing power during peak hours for industrial growth of the country and specifically of the State. He said that banks should provide financial solutions for setting up of roof top/net metering units as easy as being provided for purchasing a new car. He also highlighted that Punjab has a huge potential in biomass Sector and farm based solar projects for which financial institutions should come forward in supporting first generation . Mr. Anirudh Tewari, Secretary, New & Renewable energy explained about the huge potential of 1000 MW on the canal top and reservoir in the state and to launch a special financial package as initial cost of canal top was higher but it not only saves precious fertile land from being diverted to solar and also helps in water conservation in canals by preventing water conservation.