The Diu Smart City has become the first in the country to run on 100 percent renewable energy during daytime hours.

Diu had been importing 73 percent of its power from Gujarat until last year, according to a government notification. However, the smart city has now adopted a two-pronged approach under which a 9 MW solar park has been developed in the city along with rooftop solar panels located on 79 government buildings, generating 1.3 MW annually.

To further enhance its solar capacity, Diu is also offering its residents a subsidy ranging between ₹10,000 (~$150.684) and ₹50,000 (~$753.421) for installing 1-5 kW of rooftop solar panels.

According to the government notification, Diu is saving about 13,000 tons of carbon emissions every year. Due to low-cost solar energy, power rates have also decreased in the residential market by 10 percent last year, and another 15 percent this year.

Diu’s accomplishment has set a new benchmark for other cities to become clean and green. Of late, the other designated smart cities of the country have also sped up the development of their energy infrastructure, including rooftop solar.

Other smart cities that are ramping up their solar installations include Karnataka’s Tumakuru Smart City, which tendered 2.7 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar in March 2018. These systems will be installed on the city’s government buildings. The bid-submission deadline is May 3, 2018.

In January 2017, Mercom also reported that Azure Power won a contract to develop a 2 MW of grid-connected rooftop solar PV project for the Udaipur Smart City Limited (USCL). The project was tendered in June 2017.

In 2017, Mercom also reported that the municipal corporation of Raipur Smart City tendered 2,155 kW of solar rooftop systems to be developed on government buildings in Raipur.

India has installed nearly 1.6 GW of rooftop solar capacity (as of December 2017). It needs to add another 38.4 GW more if it is going to achieve its targeted goal of about 40 GW of rooftop solar capacity by 2022. Supporting the development of solar rooftop through Smart Cities is just one piece of the puzzle in reaching the country’s rooftop solar goal.

Image credit: By Pradeep717 – Own work, (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Ankita is an editor at MercomIndia.com where she writes and edits clean energy news stories and features. With years of experience in the news business, Ankita has a nose for news and an eye for detail. Prior to Mercom, Ankita was associated with The Times of India as a copy editor for the organization’s digital news desk. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Delhi University and a Postgraduate Diploma in journalism. More articles from Ankita Rajeshwari.