Scheme for Development of Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Power Projects
Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects, also known as Ultra Mega Solar Parks, are a series of solar power projects planned by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Union Government of India. Each power project has a minimum capacity of 500 MW. The Solar Park is a concentrated zone of development of solar power generation projects.
In December 2014, the Government of India introduced a scheme to establish at least 25 solar parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects, adding over 20 GW of installed solar power capacity. The Central Government provides financial support for the construction of these solar projects.
In February 2017, the Union Cabinet increased the total number of planned solar parks to 50 with a total capacity of 40 GW. By April 2017, 34 solar parks are under construction across 21 states.
The Nodal Agency is Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) on behalf of the Government of India (GoI).
Issues Involved
The country is paying huge development costs because of energy poverty (lower or no electricity supply to the one third of the Indian mass, as per census 2011) - education, health and economic development are getting stymied. In such a scenario, are we able to invest in large and expensive solar power plants and provide subsidised solar electricity to the rich domestic, commercial and industrial consumers etc.
For Improvement
The government should ramp up solar energy to provide electricity to the millions that have not seen an electric bulb. For this, the government needs to incentivize businesses to invest in small-scale solar plants and mini-grids.
The government can make this possible by incentivising solar mini-grids with the same model it employs for grid-connected, large-scale solar power plants.
