By IANS
New Delhi : The government announced incentives Wednesday to promote solar power generation, which it expects will attract private investments worth Rs.10 billion ($254 million) in the next five years.
“In view of high cost of solar power generation technology, my ministry will provide finance assistance amounting to Rs.12 per kilowatt (KW) and Rs.10 per KW of electricity supplied from solar photovoltaic and solar thermal power plants, respectively, to the national grid,” Minister of New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar said here.
Project developers will have to supply solar power generated from the added capacity to the national grid to avail the benefits in the 11th five-year plan (2007-12).
The government envisages capacity addition of 50 MW through solar energy, the minister said.
“A maximum of 10 MW capacity in a state will be considered under this scheme,” he added.
Muttemwar said the scheme would be implemented through the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency, the nodal agency for funding power projects based on renewable energy sources.