In line with the first ‘Green Budget’ for Delhi announced this year, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government now plans to launch a Solar Rooftop Demand Aggregation Program for domestic customers in the nation’s capital.

According to PTI, the program will benefit consumers including residential, schools, hospitals, and municipal segments with an expected aggregated demand of 40 MW under the RESCO mode.

Satyendra Jain, the power minister of the Delhi government, announced the consultation workshop held by the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Management Centre (EE&REM) under the Delhi government’s power department today.

"World Bank Suprabha- Technical assistance programme by EE&REM centre, regarding rooftop solar panel today. pic.twitter.com/G2BNJXbXpw

— Satyendar Jain (@SatyendarJain) July 23, 2018

“The residential sector is a key component in an urban setup like Delhi, and we are exploring ways and means to make it easy for this sector to adopt rooftop solar. The RESCO model enables this by minimizing capital expenditure for homeowners and resident welfare associations. The government of NCT of Delhi’s aim is to generate 1,000 MW by 2020 and 2,000 MW by 2025 through rooftop solar installations,” Jain was quoted by PTI as saying.

The discussion on the soon to be launched program was held with relevant stakeholders (vendors and financial institutions) for the promotion of rooftop solar projects in the national capital in order to understand the opportunities and challenges in aggregating consumer demand.  They deliberated on the government’s support for developing a payment security mechanism to facilitate easy loans from financiers and limit potential barriers to market transformation and generation-based incentives, among others.

In line with the union government’s endeavor to expand the use of green energy, Delhi’s major distribution company (DISCOM), BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL), recently launched an initiative called Solar City in the national capital. The initiative is designed to increase solar rooftop installations in the city. Hailed as the country’s first solar rooftop consumer aggregation program for residential buildings, the Solar City initiative will provide installations for entire apartment complexes at a single point.

In February 2018, the Delhi government also released its draft Delhi Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) 2018. The draft ECBC aims to create minimum requirements for energy-efficient design and construction of commercial buildings in Delhi. In the draft code, the government stresses the importance of installing renewable energy generation, mainly rooftop solar, on commercial buildings across the city.

Moving along with India’s goal to expand its base of renewable energy, the AAP government had also announced in the Budget 2018-19 that it will purchase 1 GW of solar and wind power in the coming year.

“This is the first green budget of the government for effective containment of pollution in the city,” the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, said while presenting the budget in the assembly.

Image credit: Bruno Corpet ( Quoique ) via Wikimedia Commons