Power Minister launches Solar Krishi Aajeevika Yojana Portal | 18 Oct 2022

Why In News?

On October 17, 2022, Rajasthan Energy Minister Bhanwar Singh Bhati launched the portal of 'Solar Krishi Aajeevika Yojana' at Vidyut Bhawan.

Key Point

• The portal will help farmers and developers to set up solar power plants on barren/unused land of farmers.
• Bhanwar Singh Bhati said that the state government has prepared solar agricultural livelihood scheme for the purpose of promoting decentralized solar power plants being developed under PM-KUSUM Component-C (Feeder Level Solarization) mainly at load centers with agricultural load in rural areas.
• He said that the purpose of launching the portal of this scheme is that farmers can get electricity through solar from their nearest 33/11 GSS during the day. Along with this, through this scheme, abundant land resources of the state will be utilized by giving farmers and land owners the opportunity to lease their barren/ unusable land on the basis of pre-determined amount for setting up solar power plants.
• Bhati said that on this online portal, farmers around 33/11 KV GSS in any village can register their land for leasing for setting up solar power plants and the developers of solar power plants can also register on the portal to reach out to the registered farmers/ land owners.
• He said that after the installation of the solar plant, all the agricultural consumers around 33/11 KV GSS will get good quality electricity during the day through solar and their electricity problem will be solved.
• He informed that there is also a provision of central financial assistance in this scheme under Kusum Component C (Feeder Level Solarization) by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.
• Principal Secretary Energy and Chairman Discoms Bhaskar A. Sawant said that these plants will be set up in distributed manners. Small plants will be set up in this scheme, so that the benefit of electricity generated will be available only to the farmers of the area around the plant.
• Under this scheme, plants will be set up under feeder level solarization in PM-KUSUM Scheme-C by identifying the GSSs in the areas where the load of agricultural electricity is high.
• He said that at present 781 GSSs have been identified where agricultural load is high, on which 971 projects can be taken up and these will generate 3079 MW of electricity. With this, 2 lakh 71 thousand pumps will be solarized.
• It is known that MNRE has approved one lakh pumps, which will be gradually taken to 2 lakh pumps solarization.
• The biggest advantage of this portal will be that after the farmer registers his land on the portal, the developer will be able to see how much land has been registered on the portal by the cultivator for the installation of solar power plant. Getting all the information on the portal will promote the installation of solar power plants.
• He said that arrangements have been made by the state government to ensure that farmers get the full lease amount on time. Under this, the electricity given to the discom will be paid directly to the cultivator by deducting the lease amount from the payment to the developer and the remaining amount will be paid to the developer.