60 cities to turn into solar townships ……Nitin Sethi | TNN
New Delhi: Taking a cue from European and US cities, the government is aiming to convert 60 cities into solar townships that run partially on renewable energy sources.
Under the 11th five-year plan, the ministry for new and renewable energy has been tasked with identifying 60 cities with populations ranging from 5-50 lakh that will draw up an energy master plan for their future growth and show how they shall either cut power consumption by 10% or shift as much as possible to renewable energy sources. While the governments focus till now has been to use renewables in remote villages that are not connected to the power grid, this is its first venture for cities.
The demand in some cities is seen to be rising by more than 15% annually and this plan hopes to capture the growing cities at the right time and push them towards some level of self-sufficiency in power needs. Under the scheme, the ministry will provide a soft grant to municipalities of the chosen cities to draw up a master plan looking at the current use of power and projected growth over 10 years.