The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has announced that it has become country’s first civic body to generate solar power through rooftop solar installations atop 55 of its buildings, earning a significant income in just three months by selling the surplus power generated to Delhi’s power distribution company BSES.

The civic body claims to have earned approximately ₹0.96 million (~$0.014 million) by selling its surplus solar power, according to news agency PTI.

SDMC plans to add rooftop solar installations to 111 buildings by June 2018 and to another 400 by June 2019. This will not only add revenue for the municipal corporation, but also help to improve the environment.

“The SDMC has become the first municipal corporation in the country to generate solar energy by installing solar panels on rooftops of its over 55 buildings to earn a huge income in three months by selling surplus power to a power distribution company,” the SDMC statement said.

SDMC Commissioner Puneet Kumar Goyal said that 0.11 million units are internally consumed by the municipal buildings. It generates a total of 0.314 million units, leaving an extra 0.2 million units to be sold.

“The municipality has invested ₹120 million (~$1.76 million) in the installation of solar rooftop projects on its building and this cost will be recovered in the next five years. As the installations generate energy for the next 25 years, revenue from selling the solar energy will boost the agency’s financial health,” he added.

At present, 54 municipal schools and community centres in SDMC are generating 2500 kW of peak solar power.

India plans to achieve 40 GW of rooftop solar as part of its broader goal of achieving 100 GW of solar capacity across the country by 2022.

According to the Mercom India Solar Project Tracker, India has an installed capacity of ~2 GW of solar rooftop installations as of March 2018.

Mercom also previously reported on a new study by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) that advocates the use of municipal bonds to facilitate the achievement of this goal, and details how such bonds could be designed and implemented to support the scaling up of rooftop solar across the country.