Uttarakhand Chief Minister inaugurated First Solar Fair “Saur Kauthig”

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami inaugurated the two-day ‘Saur Kauthig’, the first solar fair of Uttarakhand, at Rangers Ground Dehradun on Monday. On this occasion, along with providing checks of grant amount to the beneficiaries of PM Surya Ghar Yojana, Chief Minister Solar Swarojgar Yojana and Solar Water Heater Yojana, the Chief Minister also inaugurated the solar energy based mural art made at the UPCL headquarters. The Chief Minister also flagged off the solar van being run for solar energy public awareness. Through this, various information related to solar energy will be given to the people for the next hundred days. Along with this, by visiting various stalls, he got information about the innovative experiments being done in the field of solar energy.

Addressing the Solar Kauthag, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that this fair organized under the Solar Samriddh Uttarakhand Abhiyan is a unique initiative towards energy security, environmental protection and sustainable development of the state. In the fair, people will become aware about adopting solar energy by getting information about all the schemes related to solar energy, their benefits and various types of solar energy products. Along with this, by adopting solar energy, they will also contribute in making Uttarakhand self-reliant in the field of energy.

The Chief Minister said that the sources of fossil-based fuels are limited. Their use causes great harm to the environment. The sources of solar energy are unlimited and they also contribute to preserving our environment. In view of this specialty of solar energy, the use of solar energy is being continuously encouraged across the country through various schemes and campaigns under the leadership of Prime Minister Honorable Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister has set a target of producing 100 gigawatts of electricity through solar energy by the year 2030. Along with this, a target has also been set to make the country carbon neutral by the year 2070.

The Chief Minister said that the State Government is continuously encouraging the use of solar energy in the State. A new solar energy policy has been implemented with the aim of setting up maximum solar energy projects. Solar power plants are being installed on all government buildings in the State. A subsidy of 70 percent is being given jointly by the Central and State Governments with the aim of promoting the installation of rooftop solar plants in the State. Under the PM Suryaghar Yojana, so far, a grant of more than Rs 90 crore has been given to about 11 thousand beneficiaries for the establishment of solar power plants. A subsidy of 30 to 50 percent is also being given on the installation of solar water heater plants for domestic and non-domestic consumers. Under the Chief Minister Solar Swarojgar Yojana, self-employment opportunities are also being provided to the permanent residents of the State through the establishment of solar power plants. Under the new solar energy policy, a target has been set to establish solar plants with a capacity of 250 MW in residential and a total of 2500 MW by the year 2027.

The Chief Minister said that increasing the number of solar vendors in the state, 365 vendors have been recognized for the residential sector. The state government has also simplified the system of net metering and has excluded solar systems up to 10 kilowatts from technical assessment, so that the people of the state can easily adopt solar energy. In the last seven months, more than 23 megawatt solar energy capacity has been successfully installed in Uttarakhand. He expressed hope that this event of Solar Kauthig will give more impetus to the development of the solar energy sector in the state and Uttarakhand will contribute in making India carbon neutral.

On this occasion, Cabinet Minister Premchand Agarwal, MLA Khajan Das, Brijbhushan Gairola, Savita Kapoor, rank holder Vishwas Dabur, Padma Bhushan Dr. Anil Prakash Joshi, Secretary Dr. R Meenakshi Sundaram, Additional Secretary Ranjana Rajguru, MD UPCL Anil Kumar, MD UJVNL Sandeep Singhal, MD PTCUL PC Dhyani were present.