MNRE Sanctions Guidelines for KUSUM Solar Scheme

MNRE has announced that it has released norms for the KUSUM scheme to help in implementation and boost solar energy

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy lastly gave a go-ahead and delivered procedures for the rollout of the PM-KUSUM scheme, intended to inspire farmers to generate solar power in their farms and use the clean energy to replace their diesel water pumps.

The New scheme has 3 Components:

• Component-A: Setting up of 10,000 MW of Decentralized Ground/ Stilt Mounted Grid Connected Solar or other Renewable Energy-based Power Plants;
• Component-B: Installation of 17.50 Lakh Stand-alone Solar Agriculture Pumps; and
• Component-C: Solarisation of 10 Lakh Grid Connected Agriculture Pumps.

The procedures issued by MNRE says that Component-A and Component-C will be executed primarily on a pilot mode for 1,000 megawatts (MW) capacity and one lakh grid-connected agriculture pumps, respectively, while the Component-B will be executed in a full-fledged manner with total central government support of Rs 19,036.5 crore.

After the successful implementation of the preliminary project of Components A and C, the government will scale up the projects with “necessary modifications based on the learning from the pilot phase” with the total central government support of Rs 15,385.5 crore, it further.

It said these guidelines have been formulated to provide broad implementation framework of the scheme. “The scheme also has direct employment potential. Besides increasing self-employment, the proposal is likely to generate employment opportunity equivalent to 6.31 lakh job years for skilled and unskilled workers,” said a government statement released earlier, it added, “the scheme will have substantial environmental impact in terms of savings of carbon dioxide emissions. The scheme combined together is likely to result in saving of about 27 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission per annum. Further, standalone solar pumps may result in saving of 1.2 billion litre of diesel per annum and associated savings in the foreign exchange due to reduction of import of crude oil.”