Amritsar To Be ‘Solar City’ As Punjab Launches Action Plan

The Punjab government has announced that the cultural city of Amritsar will be now developed as a ‘Solar City’ of the north-western state as state’s Renewable Energy Minister Aman Arora launched the Punjab State Energy Action Plan. The action plan is being implemented to ensure promotion of energy efficiency in buildings, industries, municipalities, agriculture, transport and other sectors.

This Energy Action Plan is aimed at assisting Punjab State Departments and agencies to adopt the most sustainable, long term and inter sectoral renewable and clean energy plan. During the launch, Decision Support Tool (DST) and Amritsar Smart City Portal & Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO) portal were also launched for Punjab.

With regards to the Solar City programme in Amritsar, the Phase-I of the project has already been flagged off. PEDA has said that 190 government buildings have been identified through drone mapping that will now have solar panel installations. This will help generate about 2.33 MW of solar electricity. In Phase-I, 74 buildings will be solarized.

Additional Chief Secretary of Renewable Energy, Punjab, A Venu Prasad, said that Amritsar will be developed as Solar City that will help the state to achieve the goals towards Net Zero in each sector, that is, agriculture, power, renewable, CBG, municipalities, transport, buildings and industries.

PEDA has also signed an MoU with GIZ’s Indo-German Energy Program related Access to Energy programme funded by the German Government for seeking technical assistance with the help of well experienced team of consultants and representatives of over 20 departments and organisations.

Emphasising on the need of fast-tracking implementation of the Action Plan for Punjab and review the progress quarterly, the Additional Chief Secretary asked all the departments to come forward to equip their office buildings with solar panels to decarbonise the power sector, which will help in reducing their power consumption charges to 25% to 30%.

Head Indo-German Energy Programme GIZ Dr. Winfried Damm explained the importance of long-term energy planning to meet India’s ambition on achieving Net Zero Goal. He emphasised on the role of all government departments and residents of Punjab in realising the targets set at international stage.

PEDA Chairman HS Hanspal said that the State Energy Efficiency Action Plan (SEEAP) is also being prepared by BEE at the state level. Punjab government has also developed a State Energy Vision 2047.