Kochi, one of the 60 cities Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has selected for implementation of its solar city initiative, has submitted its master plan for the project.
The city corporation got the master plan prepared by International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI).
The central government has allocated Rs 50 lakh for the Kochi solar city project.
Of this, the state nodal agency for the project Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT) has sanctioned Rs 19.42 lakh to the corporation.
The master plan now needs to be presented for approval of the corporation council, The Hindu reports.
According to the newspaper, the city requires about Rs 696 crore to develop Kochi as a solar city.
The sum is to be raised over five years that the project is expected to take for implementation. The State government, the city administration, MNRE, and private entities are to contribute toward building the project.
By an estimate, Kochi will consume 975 million units of electricity by 2021 based on calculations at the highest rate of growth.
The solar city project is aimed to reduce the use of energy generated from conventional sources by 10 percent, that is, 97.5 MU according to the plan.
Over five years, that translates into an aggregate reduction of 155.42 MU in the city’s dirty power consumption through addition of renewable energy capacity and adoption of initiatives to improve energy efficiency.
Renewable energy interventions alone can help cut 93.64-MU of power consumption including 33.25 per cent from industrial sources and 29.36 per cent from the residential sector.
According to the master plan, efficiency programs will bring about reduction of 63.04 MU of conventional power over five years including 22.4 per cent from the industrial sector and 27.32 per cent from the residential sector.
Ajith Kumar S