BENGALURU:The Bangalore Apartment Federation (BAF) is working to launch a city-wide solar rooftop initiative. Within one-and-a-half to two years, the hope is to have 1,000 apartments using rooftop solar panels.
“We are working on a larger proposal that will make this process feasible. We are doing a lot of background work in collaboration with the Karnataka Government's energy department for the same. In the meantime, we are holding sessions with apartment owners on why we need to do this, the capital investment and regulatory aspects,” says Srikanth Narasimhan, general secretary of BAF, adding that the proposal is 70 per cent complete.
While thousands of Bengalureans are already conscious of the benefits of solar rooftops, it is the financial investment and permissions needed from authorities that are hindrances. “There is a fair bit of capital investment required. We are considering an Opex model, where the vendor will invest initially for the set-up, and charge the apartment on a monthly basis. This way, apartment owners need not worry about the initial investment,” Srikanth says.
He further adds, “There are many procedures involved for apartments to get permission from BESCOM and other agencies. Right now, it takes up to seven months for residents to get approval for installing solar roof tops. We are working to make this process easier as well.”
The State Government issued a notification on August 27 stating that units generating less than one megawatt do not need inspection before commissioning by a chief electrical inspector. This cuts down the process by two months for apartments, Srikanth informs. To educate citizens about all these aspects, the BAF will host several sessions to provide information on how to go about commissioning the same in each apartment. An upcoming session by them, titled ‘Neighbourhoods of Tomorrow’, is being organised with Apartment Adda on September 8. It will take place at 9am at Royal Orchid Hotel, Old Airport Road.
1 kilowatt for Rs 60k
At present, producing 1 kilowatt costs Rs 60,000, which means, an apartment producing 50 kilowatt of solar power will have to shell out Rs 30 lakh.