MODEL SOLAR VILLAGE (Syllabus: GS Paper 3 – Economy)

Context: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently issued the Scheme Guidelines for implementing the 'Model Solar Village' under PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana.

Model Solar Village

• About: The initiative focuses on creating one Model Solar Village per district across India.
• Objective: The goal is to promote solar energy adoption and enable village communities to become self-reliant in meeting their energy needs.
• Implementation: The State/UT Renewable Energy Development Agency will implement the scheme under the supervision of the District Level Committee (DLC).
• Criteria for Selection:
• Village Eligibility: To be considered under the competition mode, a village must be a revenue village with a population above 5,000 (or 2,000 for special category states).
• Assessment: Villages will be assessed based on their overall distributed renewable energy (RE) capacity installed six months after being declared a potential candidate by the District Level Committee (DLC).
• Winning Criteria: The village with the highest RE capacity in each district will receive a central financial assistance grant of ₹1 crore.

PM-Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana

• Announced: It is a free electricity scheme that was earlier announced by the Finance Minister in her interim budget speech on February 1.
• Launched: To promote sustainable development designed to alleviate the financial burden on citizens, will offer substantial subsidies directly deposited into the beneficiaries' bank accounts.
• Funding: This initiative, backed by an investment exceeding Rs. 75,000 crores, 
• Aim: To illuminate one crore households by providing up to 300 units of free electricity monthly.