In a bid to check the performance of small on-grid and off-grid solar power plants, the Central government has announced that it would not give any incentive to solar power plants which would perform at less than 40 per cent of its sanctioned strength during the sanctioned period. 

The Centre has asked all departments, public sector units and state governments which are planning to install solar roof top systems to make sure their system performs above 40 per cent if they intend to avail Central assistance. 

The government has for the first time linked solar rooftop incentives with the performance of the solar system. Earlier the incentive was on the basis of the rooftop installation capacity. The step has been taken following reports that some institutes including government organisations install the solar plant and forget after taking central assistance. "As a result the efficiency of the projects reduce drastically… Some organisations do not even do the normal cleaning after installing it," said a senior officer of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. 

Normally one KW of solar panel in India generates more than 1500 units of electricity a year which means  incentives would be given to a solar system that generates more than 600 units a year, said a senior officer of the MNRE. 

As per the new notification, which came into effect from yesterday, all the government organisations or undertakings which are installing solar off grid or on grid solar plants cannot get subsidy if the plant efficiency is less than 40 %. Similarly it would give maximum subsidy to the plants which are generating more than 80 % of their sanctioned strength. 

MNRE would give an incentive of Rs 16, 250 per KW for general category states, and Rs 39,000 for special category states if the performance of their rooftop power plant was more than 80%. But if it could achieve between 80 % to 50 %, the incentives would come down to Rs 9,650 and Rs 23,400 per kilowatt for general category and special category states respectively. And for those who could only achieve between 40 % to 50 %, incentive would be Rs 6,500 and Rs 15,600 per KW.