The power-full people you don’t know about

As solar panels get cheaper, more people are embracing the sun. Some of them are not only reducing their electricity bills, they’re even selling the surplus to the state. Sunday Times meets the new power producers.

When money drops onto your roof

Dhundi is home to the world’s first solar irrigation cooperative, where farmers harness the sun to water their crops and sell the excess to the grid.

FARMER RAMAN PARMAR HAS EARNED Rs 7,500 IN 4 MONTHS

For the past seven months, N K Bhat hasn’t paid a penny to the Mangaluru Electricity Supply Company. “Instead I get paid about Rs 2,000 a month,” says the resident of Puttur in Mangaluru district, gleefully.

Bhat installed a five kilowatt solar power generation system in his house in January. It cost him Rs 6 lakh to install and generates about 20 units of electricity every day. He uses 8 to 10 units. “The rest is sold back to the grid. And because of the net metering system, I get paid, and pay nothing for electricity,” he says.

Karnataka’s solar policy, which was revised in 2014, encourages households to generate solar power on their rooftops and sell the surplus energy to the state grid. A person selling solar power from a rooftop system gets Rs 7.08 per unit.

Vijay Dutt, a Bengalurean who renovated his 5,000sqft bungalow five years ago, has cut his electricity bill after installing a solar generating system. He still pays electricity bills but that’s because he also runs a homestay and rents his kitchen out for baking classes. “My intention was to contribute to the grid but I have to do more work to be entirely self-sufficient. However, solar power has reduced my power bills by half. It is only during the monsoon that I draw power from the grid. In summer and winter, I use my own solar energy,” he says. Read More….

The power-full people you don’t know about