A school in Sector 20, has installed a 50 KW Solar Power Plant on the rooftop. (Express photo by Subham Dutta/File) A school in Sector 20, has installed a 50 KW Solar Power Plant on the rooftop. (Express photo by Subham Dutta/File) AS MANY as 15 schools in Panchkula have installed solar power panels to generate electricity. Project officer, incharge of Panchkula district, Rajinder said that so far only private schools have installed solar power plants and that the government schools are yet to install them. “The government education department has prepared a proposal to install solar power panels at the rooftops of government schools. We also have intimations by many other private schools that they are in the process of installation of the solar power panels,” he said. A direction by Department of Education, Haryana was received last year by all the schools to install solar power plants with a last date of March 31,2017, after which a further extension of six months was given. Still, over two dozen private schools and all government schools are yet to install the solar power plants. The Gurukul, a school in Sector 20, has installed a 50 KW Solar Power Plant on the rooftop and is selling extra units produced to the government. The panel generates, on an average, about 250 units per day. With the facilitation of Net Metering connection, the school is selling extra energy produced by the solar panels to the HVPN electricity grid and accesses extra energy from the grid in case the power produced is not enough to satisfy the school’s requirements. “The electricity generated gets stored as credits on the grid that can be drawn when electricity is consumed, but if over a period of time more credits are generated than used, the credits are sold to the Government. There is also an app to monitor both energy used and produced so that the impact of every sunny day can be monitored on a daily basis,” school principal Harsimran Kaur said. Sandeep Sardana, principal, Manav Mangal school, Sector 11, said that after they installed 30 kilowatt solar power panel, the bills have come down by twenty per cent. “ It not only reduces electricity bills but also helps students learn about technology and clean energy,” he added. Jaya Bhardwaj, principal, Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, said that half of the school’s power consumption is produced from the 50 kilowatt solar power plant which has been installed. It was also conveyed to the schools by the Education Department that all those who install solar power plants will get a 30 per cent subsidy on installation. But many of them who have installed still await the subsidy. For all the latest Chandigarh News, download Indian Express App

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