APPLICABLE POLICIES

Maharashtra Solar Policy and it's Solar Highlights

Maharashtra is located in the Western region of India and is the third largest state by area in India. The capital of Maharashtra is Mumbai, which is also the Financial Capital of India. With 430.46MW commissioned solar energy, Maharashtra is one of the bigger contributors of solar power in India. Out of this, 44.70MW was commissioned in the Financial year 2016/17. Maharashtra approved its solar energy policy in January 2016, encouraging both public and private entities to go solar. The off-grid policy aims to save minimum 500MW of power in the next five years thanks to solar. In addition to this, the Civic Development authorities were asked to ensure that construction permission is only given to those buildings, government colonies, etc who pledge to install solar at rooftop. As much as 100% subsidy has been offered to government and semi-government offices and 15% to the private offices to setup rooftop solar. Talking about the installed projects, the Sakri Solar Plant is the biggest project in the state with a capacity of 125MW. The famous Shirdi shrine has the largest solar steam system in the world and helps cool 50,000 meals per day. Several housing societies especially in Mumbai including the Andheri housing society have installed rooftop solar systems to help save on the energy bills. Beyond residential commercial buildings are also participating with the World Trade Centre, Mumbai inaugurating a 250kWp rooftop grid connected system in September 2016.