The Gujarat government extended the Solar Power Policy-2015 for nine months till December 2020.
With the extension of the policy, which was due to end in March 2020, entrepreneurs and solar power project developers will get an extended window of nine months to set up projects and avail benefits under the policy.
The extension will help the government achieve the target of setting up 8,000 MW solar power generation capacities by 2022. This will provide a further boost to the Clean and Green Energy initiative by the Central government.
The policy, announced in August 2015, was seen as a step to decentralise solar power generation and aimed at encouraging investors to set up megawatt-scale solar projects under solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies.
The policy, the second after the one announced in 2009, also aimed at encouraging smaller generation units, mainly kW-scale solar projects in the form of solar rooftop systems.
The minimum size of a MW-scale project was fixed at one MW and that for a kW-scale project was kept at one kW.
Further, the extended window of policy period will help state power distribution companies to meet their renewable power obligation (RPO) targets.
The state has emerged among top players in solar power generation in the country and achieved an installed renewable energy capacities of 3,057 MW, against the target of 10,711 MW.
