New Delhi, June 16 (IANS) The government Wednesday announced guidelines for off-grid solar applications, as well as roof top and other small solar plants.
‘The guidelines that we have released today are meant to tap into the diverse and enormous potential of solar energy in all applications – rural, industrial as well as urban. The guidelines are flexible, simple and market friendly,’ union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said here Wednesday.
He said that the release of the guidelines was the first step towards the operationalisation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which was launched formally by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January this year.
‘Today we are taking the first step towards the operationalisation of the mission. Even as we speak we are on way to redeeming the many of the pledges and promises we made in January this year,’ said Abdullah.
According to Deepak Puri of Moser Baer Limited, which has interests in solar energy, audio storage and computer peripherals businesses, the decision to release the guidelines were a significant one.
‘The size of the solar industry in the first phase would be in the range of $3.5-4 billion. This is significant step, which will help domestic manufacturers like us,’ said Puri.
He added that the ‘decision to promote indigenous production will surely help in more and more utilization of solar energy’.
