Odisha govt to run all buildings on solar power by Nov-Dec

Bhubaneswar: With a view to reduce consumption of hydro and thermal power for all its operations, the Odisha government has decided to run all its office buildings on solar power.

In first phase, all the government buildings in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack will be powered by solar energy, officials of the Green Energy Development Corporation of Odisha Limited (GEDCOL) informed on Saturday.

Sources said that 199 buildings of the twin city Cuttack (73) and Bhubaneswar (126) will run on solar power. The solar panel will be installed on the roof as per the requirement of the building.

The project was recently launched in Odisha state secretariat, where the solar panels are being installed on the roof of all the buildings on its premises. Entire building is likely to be covered in solar power in September. Total 4 megawatt power can be generated by the solar panels that will be installed in twin cities.

The MoU for the project launched on the PPP mode was inked in July 2016.  The government is targeting to complete the project in three phases along with allocating '8 crore per 1 mega watt power.

Although, the decision was made to complete 0.2 megawatt project by December 2016, 0.8 MW  by March 2017 and 3MW by September 2017, the project got a little delayed. Sources said that all the government buildings identified in twin cities will be operated by solar power in next three-four months.

Towns have been identified for second phase project for covering the buildings in solar energy. The solar panels will be installed on the government buildings in Sambalpur, Burla, Hirakud, Rourkela, Puri, Khurda, Berhampur, Chhatrapur, Jeypore, Koraput, Sunabeda, Balasore, Bhadrak and Baripada.

Later, the central government offices in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack as well as the government staff quarters will be solar powered.

Odisha government is targeting to produce 10 megawatt electricity in the solar project.