Modhera in Gujarat to be India’s first solar powered village

Gandhinagar: Modhera, a village in Gujarat famous for its Sun Temple, will now be the first village in the country to be recognised as a solar-powered village.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on October 9th, 2022 will declare Modhera as India’s first (24 x 7) round the clock BESS Solar Powered Village.

The project to make Modhera the first solar-powered village is a joint effort by the central and state governments at Rs 80.66 crore, 69 crore in Phase-I and 11.66 crore in Phase II.

To make the project as a example for rest of the country the Gujarat government had allotted 12 hectares of land for development of this project.

As per the 2011 census, Modhera village in Becharaji Taluka has a population of 6,373 people.

More than 1,300 rooftop solar systems of 1 kW capacity have been installed on houses that generate electricity in the village, which help in reducing the power bills of the villagers of 60 to 100 percent.

The daytime power is supplied through solar panels. In the evening, the BESS provides power supply to the houses.

Talking about the solar power project at Modhera, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said, “I am happy that Gujarat has once again taken the lead in fulfilling Prime Minister’s vision of generating clean energy.

“We are committed to fulfil his resolve of producing 50% of India’s energy requirements through renewable energy by 2030.”The Modhera as the first modern village with a solar-based ultra-modern electric vehicle charging station at Sujjanpura in Mehsana, approx. 6 kms away from the Sun Temple.

Another distinction of this project is that it is India’s first grid-connected mega-watt hour scale battery energy storage system. With the help of this project the heritage lightings and 3-D projection at Sun temple will operate on solar energy.

The 3-D projection will educate visitors with the history of Modhera. This projection will operate for 15-18 minutes during evening. Heritage lightings have been installed on the temple premises.

Now, people can visit the temple from 6 pm to 10 pm to witness the lightings. The 3-D projection will operate from 7:00 to 7:30 pm every evening.

Speaking about the project, village sarpanch Jatanben D.Thakor said, “Use of solar power has increased prosperity amongst citizens. Power bills were above 1000 Rs and have almost reduced to zero today. Solar panels have been installed at all feasible houses, free of cost. In case of excess power, we earn extra income too.”