Prices of Home Lighting Systems in Tamil Nadu Are High: NSEF

From 2013, the prices of solar panels have fallen quickly, from around 60 US cents a watt to a third of it. Yet, the prices of projects for solar home lighting systems have risen highly. The National Solar Energy Federation of India has questions about it.

The Federation has asked Dheeraj Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu, to look into the matter of “exorbitant prices revealed upon recent opening of a few financial bids against a tender of the District Rural Development Agency, for providing solar home lighting systems, under the Chief Minister’s Solar Powered Greenhouse Scheme, in a recent letter.

The Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency, in August 2013, the lowest prices offered was Rs. 18,500 per system, when a tender floated for similar work by another agency of the State government. While in a tender for providing solar lighting to 60,000 rural households in 20 districts of the State, floated in August, the best price offered was Rs. 29,877 per system even though the prices of solar panels and LED bulbs have fallen substantially between 2013 and now, as per the letter.

According to RK Sharma, Honarary Secretary, NSEFI, “You may please like to get the matter examined through the projects directors in different districts in order to ensure fairness in the evaluation process.”