India's MNRE to launch 10-MW rooftop PV policy

Sep 3, 2012 - India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will soon introduce a policy to facilitate the installation of 10 MW of photovoltaic (PV) plants on rooftops of buildings, daily Hindu Business Line reported today.

The ministry is finalising the details of the policy, the daily said citing Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency's (IREDA) general manager B Venkatewsara Rao who spoke at the Solarcon 2012 solar industry conference taking place from September 3 to 5 in Bangalore.

According to Rao, the solar projects would be set up on a rent-a-roof basis -- the project's developer leases the roof from the building's owner to install the solar system and sells the output to the grid. The solar systems will be installed in places that have no grid stability problems.

The governments of a number of Indian states have launched or are working on own rooftop solar programmes. The Minister for Large and Medium Industries of the state of Karnataka, Murugesh Rudrappa Nirani, said during the conference that the state had selected 1,000 buildings to host rooftop solar projects of 100 kW each, the newspaper added.

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