CHENNAI: The city planners are toying with the idea of making it mandatory for all multi-storied buildings to install rooftop solar panels to generate green energy.
Faced with the fast-paced growth that has made it difficult for basic infrastructrure to catch up, sources said this proposal would help ensure that the potential renewable sources were fully tapped before turning to conventional energy.
This comes as the Union government is implementing a ‘Grid Connected Rooftop and Small Solar Power Plants Programme’ that encourages the installation of solar rooftop systems across the country.
According to official sources, the measure is expected to reduce the use from the grid at a time when the per capita consumption of power in the State is growing because of rapid urbanisation.
It is learnt that development regulations under the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act would be altered to make it mandatory for all multi-storied buildings to harness grid-connected solar energy.
It is learnt that the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions of 17 States have notified the regulatory framework on net-metering or feed-in-tariff to encourage rooftop solar plants.
With an installed capacity of about 3000MW solar power, the share of solar energy is about 2 per cent in the country. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has proposed to scale up Grid Connected Solar Power targets from 20,000 MW to 1,00,000 MW by 2022. The target includes 40,000 MW roof-top solar photovoltaic cells and 57,000 MW large solar projects.
Meanwhile, the reaction of real estate developers on the proposed move is mixed.
“This proposal is okay for office buildings but for high-rise buildings it would be difficult,” said the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) Chennai president Ajith Chordia.
“In high rise residential areas, there is hardly any space for harnessing grid-connected solar energy,” said Chordia.
However, CREDAI’s national chairman for Best Practices T Chitty Babu welcomed the move stating that developers could harness grid connected solar energy in common area facilities like gymnasium, street lights, swimming pool, genset, club etc. However, the onus of setting up solar panels for individual apartments was with the buyers, he said.