German Government to support India’s Vision – “One Solar City” per Indian State

The rapid urbanisation and changing lifestyles are increasing the electricity demand in Indian towns and cities. The Central Electricity Authority, Government of India forecasts the peak electricity demand in India to reach 448 GWp by the year 2037. Given the continuing megatrend of urbanisation and the related energy demand in India, Renewable Energy (RE) including PV solar offers an excellent option for a climate-neutral source of energy which can be integrated into the urban space.

Recognising solar/ renewable power as a potential solution, on 27 May 2020, The Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi called for each state to have at least one ‘city’ completely powered through renewable energy. To support India’s vision, the Indo-German development cooperation project ‘Integration of Renewable Energies in the Indian Electricity System (I-RE)’ is providing consultancy and implementing support for transforming the cities into renewable energy cities. The project is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

At present, the cities of Gandhinagar, Amritsar, Ayodhya, Thiruvananthapuram, Panaji and Bhubaneshwar are supported by the German Government for their transformation into ‘100% Renewable Energy Cities with high shares of solar energy’. 

To demonstrate the use of solar in public space known as Urban PV, GIZ in association with the Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI) supported the demonstration of a ‘plug-n-play’ solar PV at various prominent places to create awareness and business models for public charging stations powered by solar. Ten of such “PV Port” systems were installed at Swaminarayan Akshardham, a significant and large temple complex in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. These systems were inaugurated on 18 April 2022. The importance of the event was underlined by the presence of Shri Shwetal Shah, Advisor, Climate Change Department, Government of Gujarat and Senior Officials of the Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple. 

Commenting on this milestone, Shri Shwetal Shah stated: “The Government of Gujarat is committed to building a sustainable and climate resilient future for the people living in the state.  We thank MNRE, BMUV and GIZ for partnering with the Government of Gujarat in this milestone development.” He highlighted that the Government of Gujarat will strive to develop other solar cities in Gujarat based on the learnings in Gandhinagar. Additionally, Shri Shwetal Shah emphasised the need for the proliferation of such PV Port systems to create awareness amongst the public.

Mr. Jörg Gäbler, Principal Advisor of the Integration of Renewable Energies in the Indian Electricity System (I-RE) project, GIZ India, highlighted that “such collaborations and the resulting synergies are expected to benefit consumers to a huge extent. We are very optimistic that the partnerships will provide us insights to deal with emerging challenges and capitalise on opportunities on the city level which help us replicate the results in other cities across India.”

Shri Jagrut Patel from Swaminarayan Akshardham, Gandhinagar pointed out that the PV Port system is not only complementing the existing solar PV System of 400 kWp installed at Akshardham Temple but will also raise curiosity and awareness amongst the visitors which will ultimately result in the promotion of solar PV Technology.