The Kusum (Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) scheme was announced in the Union Budget in 2018.
It aims to boost the production of Solar Power in India and provide it to farmers.
It involves decentralized solar power production of up to 28,250 Megawatt (Mw) over five years.This scheme will bring double benefit as it provide farmers extra income by selling the extra power directly to the government.
It will decreased the consumption of diesel in the agricultural sector.
Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM)’ provides for:
- Installation of grid-connected solar power plants each of capacity up to 2 MW in the rural areas;
- Installation of standalone off-grid solar water pumps to fulfill irrigation needs of farmers not connected to grid;
- Solarisation of existing grid-connected agriculture pumps to make farmers independent of grid supply and also enable them to sell surplus solar power generated to DISCOM and get extra income; and
- Solarisation of tube-wells and lift irrigation projects of Government sector.
The proposed scheme consists of three components:
- Component-A: 10,000 MW of Decentralized Ground Mounted Grid Connected Renewable Power Plants.
- Component-B: Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps.
- Component-C: Solarisation of 10 Lakh Grid-connected Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps.
The Scheme will have substantial environmental impact in terms of savings of CO2 emissions. All three components of the Scheme combined together are likely to result in saving of about 27 million tonnes of CO2 emission per annum. The scheme has direct employment potential
