This is a scheme of Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) Government of India, New Delhi for promoting use of Solar water heating systems and Solar Cookers in the Country. This scheme is being implemented as Soft Loan scheme for Solar Water Heaters (SWH)  under the Interest Subsidy. In our Bank, it is named as Surya Sakthi scheme.

• Solar Water Heaters based on Flat Plate Collectors(FPC based SWH)
• Solar Water Heaters based on Evacuated Tube Collectors(ETC based SWH) &
• Solar Cookers

The FPC based SWHs to be financed must utilize BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) approved Solar collectors. The suppliers of ETC based SWHs are approved by the Ministry. The up to date list of BIS approved manufacturers of FPCs and approved suppliers of ETC based SWHs are enclosed as Annexure-I. Such updated list can also be had from the Web site www.mnes.nic.in of MNES.Systems supplied by the following are eligible for financing.

• Manufacturers of BIS certified collectors
• Business associates/authorized dealers of such manufacturers, on production of a letter from the manufacturers.

It is informed by MNES that a model Regulation/Building Bye-laws for the installation of solar assisted water heating systems in certain categories of buildings has been circulated by the Ministry of Urban Development to all the State and Union Territory Governments with a request to advise their local bodies to incorporate in their existing building bye-laws to make it mandatory for several categories of buildings including residential flats of certain minimum plinth area to have solar water heating system.

This is a solar system to heat water up to a temperature of 60-80 Degrees Centigrade . It consists of a collector to collect solar energy and an insulated storage tank to store hot water. These systems be either a Flat Plate Collector (FPC based SWH) or Evacuated Tube Collector (ETC based SWH). The system is normally mounted on the roof top or adjacent land.

No capacity limit(loans can be extended irrespective of liters per day (lpd ) capacity of the system)

Systems supplied by suppliers with BIS approved solar collectors / approved by the MNES as the case may be. The list will be updated periodically by MNES and branches can log on to the website of MNES www.mnes.nic.in. for latest information.

Suppliers will be responsible for maintenance of the systems for 5 years and maintenance cost will form part of unit cost to be financed by the Banks as per above guidelines.