• Madhya Pradesh state cabinet has approved the Madhya Pradesh Renewable Energy Policy 2016
  • The slogan of the policy is Har Chhat Par Muskurata Suraj’ or Smiling Sun On Every Rooftop
  • Domestic consumers will get a subsidy of 30% on installing solar panels on their rooftops, while government buildings will be eligible for 45%, and other government entities may get 50% subsidy as well
  • It will be mandatory to use locally manufactured solar panels to be eligible for this subsidy, according to local me
  • Educational institutions have also been asked to install solar panels either on the rooftop or on any vacant space available

The state of Madhya Pradesh in India has formally approved its renewable energy policy, under which it plans to encourage mass adoption of rooftop PV systems. The Madhya Pradesh Renewable Energy Policy 2016 carries a slogan ‘Har Chhat Par Muskurata Suraj’ which literally means Smiling Sun On Every Rooftop.

It will be mandatory to use locally manufactured solar panels to be eligible for this subsidy, according to local media.

In a press conference, the state’s Principal Secretary for Renewable Energy, Manu Srivastava, informed that residential consumers will be be eligible for a 30% subsidy to install 3 kW rooftop PV systems. These PV systems would half their domestic power bills. The government buildings will get a subsidy of 45% and some government entities will get even 50% support. The support is not just limited to rooftops – the government has also given the go ahead to educational institutes to install PV panels, even on the ground.

According to The Economic Times, a local business paper, Madhya Pradesh needs to install 22,000 solar power units to be able to achieve its targeted capacity of 2,200 MW of rooftop capacity by 2022. Under the central government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), India is targeting 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2022, out of which 60 GW will come from large scale solar power plants and 40 GW from rooftop PV.

The 2.2 GW target is further broken into year-wise targets. For 2015-16, the goal was 10 MW, for the current fiscal year 2016-17 it is 265 MW, according to Madhya Pradesh Policy For Decentralized Renewable Energy Systems, 2016.

In August 2016, a research report from TechSci Research forecasted Madhya Pradesh to be one of the solar rooftop leaders in the next five years (see India Solar Rooftop Market Report).

A recent Bridge to India estimate stated that as of August 22, 2016, Madhya Pradesh had installed a cumulative PV capacity of 756 MW (see South Leads In India PV Capacity). Madhya Pradesh is the Indian state where the ultra-mega solar power project of 750 MW capacity is coming up – a joint venture between the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (MPUVNL). It is supported by the Department of Foreign Trade, Government of Australia as well as the International Finance Corporation (IFC) (see 750 MW ‘Ultra-Mega’ Solar Project In India).

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) along with US Agency For International Development (USAID) had sought to help the state introduce appropriate net metering policies and regulations in the past (see New Partnerships For USAID In India).

The new rooftop policy will be notified in the coming few days.