*PUNJAB TO PROMOTE GREEN ENERGY, ALL GOVT BUILDINGS TO BE SOLARISED SOON: AMAN ARORA*

• *Asks to appoint Nodal Officer in their respective depts to coordinate with PEDA*

Chandigarh, November 25:

In order to further strengthen the clean energy infrastructure in the state, Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government is mulling to equip all the state government buildings with solar power.

Disclosing this, Punjab New and Renewable Energy Sources Minister Mr. Aman Arora said that he has written a letter to Heads of all the departments in this regard. In this letter, their consent has been sought to install Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels on the rooftops of the office buildings under Renewable Energy Services Company (RESCO) Mode. All the Heads have also been directed to appoint a senior officer of their departments as a Nodal Officer to coordinate with Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) to smoothen the process of solarising the building of the departments concerned.

The Cabinet Minister informed that PEDA has already installed solar PV of a total capacity of 88MW on the rooftops of various government buildings and these have been successfully generating clean and green energy.

This revolutionary move, in turn, will help in creating hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, besides helping in meeting the electricity deficit by providing relief to the overloaded distribution network. It will also reduce the electricity cost to the state government thus becoming more efficient, he added.

Mr. Aman Arora said that it will also go a long way to save the environment by switching to clean and green energy from conventional forms of power generation using fossil fuels, which will help to decarbonise the power sector of the state. Solar PV has become the most preferred source of renewable power, due to the various benefits that it offers.