Goa CM Mulls Over Renewable Energy Expansion to 80 MW to Solarize Panaji

The state of Goa requires producing 80 MW of renewable energy that may help the state government to make Panaji a solar city. This also needs to be substantiated with the efforts on the part of the people of Goa by installing more and more solar panels, believes Chief Minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant.

Out of the total 614 MW of total installed capacity in Goa, renewable energy makes just over 28 MW. About 2-MW of power comes from hydro-sources and just 26 MW is wind and solar power, says Central Electricity Authority (CEA). The state is already offering a 50% subsidy on solar installations.

CM Pramod Sawant is also the Chairman of Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) that promotes renewable energy in the state. He wants to turn Panaji to a complete ‘solar city’ in the coming two years through various measures.

He said, “The Ministry of Renewable Energy and GEDA, have decided to make Panaji a solar city. For this we will need to generate around 80 megawatt (MW) of renewable energy power. For this we need the support of the people to adopt rooftop solar projects along with solar projects on government buildings.”

The Goa government has twin plans to solarize the entire state. First, it wants to install solar power panels on all possible buildings in Panaji that would include residential, commercial and government buildings. Secondly, the government is requesting the people to ‘adopt’ solar panel installations outside Panaji. This will be compensated through the net metering system in their electricity bills. In this scheme, the solar farms will be developed by the Goa government and private developers which could then be adopted by individuals.

Sanjeev Joglekar, the member secretary of the GEDA, opines that Goa relies heavily on electricity supplied from the Korba thermal power plant situated in Chhattisgarh. It also takes power from plants in Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh among others. He added, “The idea is that we wean the people away from fossil fuel powered energy as well as make the state more self-sufficient in its energy needs.”