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Aiming to empowering farmers in the state, Gujarat government launched Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY) under which farmers can not only produce electricity but will also be able to sell it. This is the first of its kind of initiative in the country.
Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY) is a solar power generation project by farmers. It has been launched for farmers. Under the project farmers will produce his power. The power generated then will be used by them for their captive consumption. Remained will be sold to State power utility.
The cost of Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY) is around Rs. 870 Crore. It will be having capacity to give output or generate 175 MW power. The pilot project will be started from July, 2018. In the initial stage, 137 feeders will be set up in the state. The scheme or project will cover approximately 12,400 farmers of the Gujarat’s 33 districts.
Farmers can generate power through these solar panels and can sell it to the state government. Govt. will procure electricity at a rate of Rs. 7 per unit for 7 years while at Rs. 3.50 for the remaining 18 years.
Initially, the state govt. will implement the pilot project of solar power generation scheme with an outlay of Rs. 870 crore. To produce 1,42,000 horse power of energy for irrigation through water pumps will require 177 megawatts of solar power generation in the pilot stage.
Important features and highlights of this scheme
♦ Solar Panels Purchase Cost – Out of the total cost, farmers will only have to pay 5%. 60% would be given as subsidy amount while 35% would be given as low interest rate loans for 7 years. The loan repayment time is fixed at 7 years.
♦ Selling Additional Power – Farmers can sell the additional power to state government. For first 7 years, govt. will purchase power at a cost of Rs. 7 per unit while govt. will purchase the power at Rs. 3.5 per unit for next 18 years.
♦ This scheme will provide a huge relief to the farmers and will also generate additional income. Farmers will be able to recover the cost of investment within the next 8 to 18 months.
♦ Till date, farmers are getting electricity for 8 hours for irrigation purpose. After the successful implementation of this project, farmers will get electricity upto 12 hours. Moreover, it will also resolve the concerns of farmers of getting power supply only at night.
♦Extra Earnings for the Govt. – Currently, farmers in Gujarat pay around 50 paise / unit for electricity supply for irrigation purposes. The state government spends about Rs. 4,500 – 5,000 crore per year as subsidy on electricity for irrigation purpose. This subsidy cost can be brought down by proper implementation of SKY Scheme.
