VIJAYAPURA: The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has drawn up a Rs 250 cr plan to turn the city into a ‘Solar City’ as directed by the state government, according to top VMC sources.
Apprising Express of this here on Monday, they added that as a first step in the implementation of the plan, the VMC would install roof-top solar panels at its main office and council hall and its buildings at the Ajitsingh Nagar Sewage Treatment Plant, Ramalingeswara Nagar and Dr KL Rao Head Water Works and generate 100 KW of power at each them to meet its power requirements. Each of these units would cost Rs 5 cr, they explained.
“The central and state governments have started releasing funds for the ‘Solar City’ project in a phased manner and on a pilot basis they have already released `1.5 cr to the VMC to install 500 KW solar panels on some of its select buildings. Later, we will install such panels on all the corporation buildings and government offices. We have already called for tenders to take up the solar project and soon we will start it on a full scale,” said VMC Commissioner G Veerapandian.
According to official sources, of the 12 million units of power consumed daily by various consumers in the city, the VMC’s share is 0.87 percent whereas the households consume 58.3 per cent, commercial buildings 39.4 per cent and industries 1.5 per cent.
The VMC authorities are keen on harnessing the solar energy and reducing the power bills.
“We have taken up the ‘Solar City’ project with the aim of reducing by 10 per cent the consumption of electricity produced through conventional methods by residential, commercial and industrial consumers. We are planning to appoint a group of experts in the existing ‘solar centre’ in the VMC to design plans to transform Vijayawada from a ‘Sun city’ to a ‘solar city’ and also clarify the doubts of the people regarding rooftop solar panels,” the commissioner said.
“As the Acharya Nagarjuna University proposes to start a certification training course in Photovoltaic rooftop solar panels installation from April, in collaboration with GERMI company, Gujarat, the VMC has started identifying and referring the unemployed youth, who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs and skilled solar professionals, for the course,” Veerapandian added.