PM Modi officially declares 'Modhera village' as India’s first solar powered village

Tags: place in news State News

Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is on a three day(9-11 October 2022) visit to Gujarat, officially declared Modhera village in Mehsana district of Gujarat as India’s first 24x7  solar powered village on 9 October 2022.

The Modhera village is provided round the clock electricity by over 1000 rooftop solar power panels installed in the village and also through Battery Energy Storage System at night.

Modhera is the first modern village in India with a solar-based ultra-modern electric vehicle charging station.

Another distinction of this project is that it is India’s first grid-connected mega-watt hour scale battery energy storage system.

Project Modhera

In 2019 the Central government and the state government started the joint project to power the Modhera village in Mehsana district with solar power.

The Gujarat government had allotted 12 hectares of land for development of this project and an amount of Rs 80.66 crore was spent on a 50:50 basis by Centre and state government in two phases,

More than 1,300 1 kW rooftop solar systems have been installed on houses which generate electricity. And electricity is supplied free of cost to the villagers.

Modhera’s Sun Temple

The Prime Minister also inaugurated the 3-D projection facility powered by solar energy for the Modhera’s Sun Temple. The sun temple is a protected archaeological site and heritage lighting has been installed on the temple premise.

The solar-powered 3-D projection will educate visitors about the history of Modhera. 

Sun Temple is situated on the bank of river Pushpavati. It was built by King Bhima-I of Chalukya dynasty in 1026-27.