Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma launched the Chief Minister’s Solar Mission at the State Convention Centre, Shillong Friday.
Addressing the gathering, the Chief Minister assured to provide substantial subsidies to the beneficiaries.
With a commitment to fostering green energy adoption, the CM said that the mission represents a paradigm shift by blending cutting-edge technology with innovative financing models.
“The CM Solar Mission will be a flagship Renewable Energy intervention which is a people centric scheme with poorest of the poor as the target beneficiary but at the same time diverse options are available on table for every strata of the society,” Sangma said.
He said the core of the strategy is the adoption of hybrid solar inverter technology.
“We firmly believe that this technology will prove to be a game-changer, driving us closer to the sustainable future we have envision”, he added. The hybrid solar inverter has the flexibility of charging through conventional residential power connection as well as Solar power. The unit will preferably charge from Solar energy and switch to normal grid connectivity for charging only when there is inadequate sunlight. The technology is such that it can charge even on cloudy days. This way the technology can significantly reduce the electricity bill of every home,” Sangma said.
The CM also informed that the Government of Meghalaya will earmark investment of ₹ 100 crore annually for the solar mission.
“We want to popularise Renewable Energy to address current challenges. We have to tap into what is available so abundantly and for free, the sun light,” he added.
This commitment is reinforced through a synergy of government initiatives and corporate social responsibility (CSR) endeavors.
“We are carving a distinct path from past efforts. Our approach is multi-faceted and dynamic, focusing not only on technological solutions but also on real world problem solving. Our interventions always focused on technology but missed out on the larger picture that is the actual utility to individuals and how it solves the day to day problems faced by the common man,” the CM said.
Talking about subsidies, he said, “With a commitment to fostering green and clean energy transformation, substantial subsidy along with back end bank financing will be available such that beneficiaries will have to foot a miniscule financial burden at the time of availing the benefit. Also the loan component will be soft loans with EMI comparable or lesser than a small household monthly electricity bill. The Govt subsidy will range from 70 % for individual households to 50 % subsidy for schools, hospitals, hotels and other commercial entities”, said Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma launching the scheme. “
He further said that this innovative model, finely tuned is to address real-life problems, stems from a meticulous understanding of people’s needs. He also stated that the education sector and larger institutions stand to benefit significantly from this scheme.
“ Infact, the higher capacity hybrid solar inverter system can turn your house as a net power generator which can be fed to a local grid and then the national grid through net metering such that some day we can achieve an installed capacity equal to the current installed capacity of the State,” he added.
Also present on the occasion were Power Minister Abu Taher Mondal and Chairman of MNREDA Rupert Momin.