Nagaland trails NE states in solar capacity installed

DIMAPUR — Nagaland has installed a total solar capacity of 3.04 megawatts as of October 31, 2023, under the National Solar Mission (NSM), launched in January 2010.

The Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Power, RK Singh, informed about this in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on December 5.

As of October 31, 2023, among the Northeastern states, Nagaland has the least installed solar capacity in terms of megawatts when compared to the other states in the region.

Assam took the lead in the Northeast with a total of 155.81 megawatts. It was followed by Mizoram with 30.43 megawatts, Tripura with 18.47 megawatts, Manipur with 13.03 megawatts, Arunachal Pradesh with 11.79 megawatts, Sikkim with 4.69 megawatts, and Meghalaya with 4.19 megawatts of solar capacity.

As of October 31, 2023, the total solar capacity installed in the country amounted to 72,018.02 megawatts. The top three states with the highest solar capacity installations were Rajasthan, leading with 18,089.21 megawatts, followed by Gujarat with 10,417.56 megawatts, and Karnataka with 9,347.18 megawatts of solar capacity installed.

According to Singh, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is also implementing phase II of the Roof Top Solar (RTS) Programme since August 2019, under which Central Financial Assistance (CFA) is provided for residential households, resident welfare associations, and group housing societies.

The CFA for rooftop solar projects up to 3 kilowatts capacity in residential households is currently provided at INR 14,588 per kilowatt.

The CFA for rooftop solar project capacity above 3 kilowatts and up to 10 kilowatts is provided at INR 7,294 per kilowatt and rooftop solar project capacity above 10 kilowatts in residential households is not eligible for any CFA.

For group housing societies and residential welfare associations, the CFA is capped at INR 7,294 per kilowatts for the installation of RTS plants designed to supply power to common facilities.