Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has allocated solar energy projects worth Rs 600 crore to local entrepreneurs. Together, these projects will generate 148.85 MW power.

On the occasion, the chief minister said another lot of solar power projects worth Rs 200 crore will also be distributed soon among local entrepreneurs. Rawat described the projects as a significant step towards economic development of hill areas.

Each entrepreneur will earn on an average Rs 66.50 lakh per annum from these environment-friendly projects, he said.

Recently, the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA) had invited online applications from permanent residents of the state for power generation from solar energy projects in the hilly areas of the state.

The state’s nodal agency for renewable energy projects has invited proposals from developers under the type-I category of the state’s Solar Energy Policy-2013 which was amended last year. The total planned capacity under the tender is 52 MW through a tariff-based competitive bidding process.

The cost of the bid bond is Rs 50000 per 100 kWp of bid capacity, and the processing fee will be Rs 2500 per 100 kWp. The last date for submission of the proposals and the applications is August 22, 2019.

This is the second such tender issued by the nodal agency, with a cumulative tendered capacity of 252 MW in solar power capacity planned to be developed in the hilly state.

In April, we reported that the Irrigation Department of Uttarakhand had issued a tender for the installation of 40 MW solar projects on two of its dams in the state.

The 40 MW cumulative capacity will be developed across two dams in the Udhamsinghnagar district of Uttarakhand. The first at the Haripura Jalasay, where a 27 MW solar plant will be developed. And the second at Tumariya Jalasay, where a 13 MW solar plant will be set up.