Officials told ET that this initiative will assist farmers in selecting the type of solar pumps they prefer and in reducing the installation time.
“It is at the drawing board stage. We aim to enhance the implementation of certain aspects of the PM-KUSUM scheme. It is caught up in a lot of tendering currently related delays,” said one of the officials, who did not wish to be identified.
The plan may involve creating a national portal for solar pump installations. This portal is a key component of PM-KUSUM, similar to what the government did for the updated solar rooftop scheme introduced in February. Farmers can directly submit their requirements to the vendors through the national registration for solar pumps. This process eliminates the necessity for states to tender the pumps, according to officials quoted by the financial daily.
Solar Agriculture
The PM-KUSUM scheme consists of three components. These include setting up 10,000 MW of solar power units, installing approximately 2 million stand-alone solar agriculture pumps, and solarising 1.5 million agriculture pumps. Discussions are ongoing regarding the rationalisation for the installation and solarisation of agricultural pumps.
The government is not considering any changes to the subsidy outlay, according to two officials. However, they mentioned that a benchmark for the subsidy expenditure would be maintained. The Centre has allocated Rs 34,422 crore for all three components of the scheme.
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Under the PM-KUSUM scheme, the Centre provides a 30% subsidy for solar pump installations and solarisation, while the states contribute a minimum of 30%. Officials are currently working on integrating the state’s subsidy into the national portal. “We can build in the state subsidy component also on the portal, along with the Centre’s,” one official said.
The PM Suryaghar Muft Bijli Yojana, which aims to install rooftop solar units for 10 million households, has received more registrations than anticipated, with over 800,000 applications submitted so far, as per the officials.