A 11.5 MW rooftop solar energy plant, touted to be the largest of its kind in the world, was inaugurated by Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in Beas near Amritsar on Tuesday.
Spanning an area of 82 acres, the newly commissioned rooftop panels at the Dera Baba Jaimal Singh, Beas in Amritsar, Punjab will now be the largest rooftop solar plant in the world.
Built at a cost of Rs 139 crore, the plant is capable of producing 11.5 MW power, it was commissioned by Tata Solar Power for R.S.S.B Educational and Educational Society in Amritsar.
The environmental benefits are touted to be the equivalent to that of planting 200,000 trees and abetment of 400,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the next 25 years.
Punjab New & Renewable Energy Resources Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said this project would generate clean and green energy sufficient to power approximately 8,000 homes.
He also claimed that Punjab is generating 470 MW of solar power and with projects of 500 MW in the pipeline, the state would be able to generate solar power close to 1,000 MW by the end of FY 2016-17.
The state government had recently claimed that the state had set a national benchmark in solar power generation with a 172 times increase in just three years. Investment in the solar power sector increased from Rs 70 crore to over Rs12,000 crore in 2015, it was claimed.
