Three years since launch, solar panel scheme fails to power up
Nearly three years after the union government announced subsidy for rooftop solar panel installation, Bescom is yet to finalise empanelled vendors, effectively denying citizens to go green.
In March 2019, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) announced the Soura Gruha Yojana and made electricity supply companies nodal agencies. Consumers get a 40% subsidy for up to three kilowatts of solar panel installation and 20% for above 3 kW.
Despite Bescom receiving 1,200 applications since 2019, the project has seen little movement. Officials said three tenders were called but didn’t get much response. “We had a 30 MW allocation for the financial year 2019-20 and floated a tender to identify the agency to instal the panels but the response was poor and no eligible bidders came forward,” a Bescom official said, adding that the subsequent tender had the same result.
