New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will appoint an operator to identify, design, erect, install, test, and commission rooftop solar units as defined by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. After the installation of the solar rooftops, New Delhi would become the second solar city in the country after Chandigarh.

NDMC has identified 40 buildings in the area under its jurisdiction for installation of rooftop solar panels, its chairperson Jalaj Shrivastava has said. It will save NDMC from taking formal permissions at different levels while implementing this project.NDMC expects to generate almost 8MW rooftop solar energy within a year.
According to an MoU signed between NDMC and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), the civic body should meet at least five per cent of its total energy consumption needs through solar energy.

As per estimate, the NDMC area consumes a daily 350 MVA electricity during summer and 150 MVA during winter. Apart from this the civic body is also contributing 16MW of electricity to 8,000 households in the city by generating power using solid waste as fuel at a ‘Waste To Energy’ plant on NDMC land in Okhla. 

One question remains – if the New Delhi streetlights come under the NDMC purview, would solar streetlights help save energy, and add to the quote of solar power generation as mandated for NDMC ? This has twin benefits – generation of power, and helping keep the roads lit up even when grid electricity fails ( which now is happening at regular periodicity) is one. The other is what we believe is ‘solar technology visibility’ for the common man to see. We believe that we are at the threshold of a strong revolution that is brewing. And solar technology adoption is going to skyrocket. What needs to be done is popularise its usage and have enough working prototypes available for people to see and learn from.

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