• Gujarat government announced Suryashakti Kishan Yojana (SKY) in which farmers can sell surplus power to the state-owned power companies at Rs7 per unit for a period of seven years under this scheme.
• As per the new scheme, a farmer signing up for it will have to spend only 5 % amount of the total expenditure for installing the solar project (including solar panels and inverters).
• The central and state governments would pay 60 % amount as a subsidy.
• While remaining 35% amount would be a loan to the farmer, interest on which would be paid by the state government.
• The duration for repayment of the loan amount has been fixed for seven years.
• The central government has been aggressively promoting clean and renewable energy initiatives with an ambitious target to install 100 gigawatts (GW) of energy capacity from solar power by 2022.
• SKY would be an able element in fulfilling Prime Minister’s pledge to double the income of farmers by year-2022.

Source:Livemint