In line with India’s pledge to promote renewable energy and reduce Green House Gas emissions, Indian Authorities have today given an in-principle nod to develop 48 cities as Solar Cities in India.
According to the Government press release 37 out of these 48 cities have already been sanctioned. These are the cities which have already engaged consultants for preparation of Master Plans to execute these Solar Projects.
The cities were identified based on their population (between 50,000 to 50 lakh) and an amount of Rs.17.23 crore has been sanctioned to develop these Solar Cities!
Following is the list 48 Solar cities to be developed in India
| Sr.No. | State | Cities for which in-principle approval given |
| 1 | Andhra Pradesh | 1. Vijayawada* |
| 2 | Assam | 2. Guwahati*, |
| 3. Jorhat* | ||
| 3 | Arunachal Pradesh | 4. Itanagar* |
| 4 | Chandigarh | 5. Chandigarh * |
| 5 | Chhattisgarh | 6. Bilaspur* |
| 7. Raipur* | ||
| 6 | Gujarat | 8. Rajkot* |
| 9. Gandhinagar* | ||
| 10.Surat* | ||
| 7 | Goa | 11. Panji City* |
| 8 | Haryana | 12. Gurgaon* |
| 13. Faridabad* | ||
| 9 | Himachal Pradesh | 14. Shimla * |
| 15. Hamirpur* | ||
| 10 | Karnataka | 16. Mysore* |
| 17. Hubli-Dharwad* | ||
| 11 | Kerala | 18. Thiruvananthapuram |
| 19. Kochi | ||
| 12 | Maharashtra | 20. Nagpur * |
| 21. Thane* | ||
| 22.Kalyan-Dombiwali* | ||
| 23. Aurangabad | ||
| 24. Nanded | ||
| 25. Shirdi* | ||
| 13 | Madhya Pradesh | 26. Indore |
| 27.Gwalior* | ||
| 28. Bhopal | ||
| 29. Rewa | ||
| 14 | Manipur | 30. Imphal* |
| 15 | Mizoram | 31. Aizawl* |
| 16 | Nagaland | 32. Kohima* |
| 33.Dimapur* | ||
| 17 | Orissa | 34. Bhubaneswar* |
| 18 | Punjab | 35. Amritsar* |
| 36. Ludhiana* | ||
| 37. SAS Nagar (Mohali) | ||
| 19 | Rajasthan | 38. Ajmer |
| 39. Jaipur | ||
| 40. Jodhpur* | ||
| 20 | Tamil Nadu | 41. Coimbatore * |
| 21 | Tripura | 42. Agartala* |
| 22 | Uttrakhand | 43. Dehradun* |
| 44. Haridwar&Rishikesh* | ||
| 45. Chamoli-Gopeshwar* | ||
| 23 | Uttar Pradesh | 46. Agra* |
| 47. Moradabad* | ||
| 24 | West Bengal | 48. Howrah |
Note: * marked cities are sanctioned cities
What is a Solar City?
The Solar City aims at minimum 10% reduction in projected demand of conventional energy at the end of five years, through a combination of enhancing supply from renewable energy sources in the city and energy efficiency measures. [source]
The basic aim is to motivate the local Governments for adopting renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures. In a Solar City all types of renewable energy based projects like solar, wind, biomass, small hydro, waste to energy etc. are installed along with possible energy efficiency measures depending on the need and resource availability in the city.
Kudos to Indian Government for taking this step!