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.
What is Suryashakti Kisan Yojana (SKY)?
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.
Cost management of the project.
As far as cost is concerned with SKY, a subsidy of up to 60% will be given jointly by center and state government for setting up project. While in remaining 40%, 5% will be paid instantly by the farmer whereas rest 35% will be provided to him in the form of affordable loan. The interest of loan will be between 4.5 to 6%.
The duration of the scheme is for 25 years which has been divided into two periods that are 7 years and 18 years. For first 7 years a rate of Rs. 7 will be given to farmers for every unit sold. Out of which Rs 3.5 is paid by state power utility and rest Rs 3.5 by state government.
