Residents of Coimbatore, who suffered long hours of power cut a few years ago, have started tapping solar energy to meet the power requirements. According to information available with Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation, the region, which covers Coimbatore, Tirupur and The Nilgiris districts, has close to 700 solar rooftop installations with the installed capacity of more than 1.3 MW (between 2014 and March 31, 2016). This includes installations with net metering and those without it and those in three phase service connections and single phase connections. The maximum number of installations is in Coimbatore city – nearly 500 installations with subsidy from the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency and 74 without the subsidy. These are solar energy systems that are installed and commissioned. About 20 more applications are waiting for net metering in the city. An official of Tangedco said that supply of net meters has resumed after the elections and there would not be any delay in distributing the meters. In the case of solar rooftop systems with subsidy, the customers went in for one kw capacity systems and those without the subsidy went in for two kw to 10 kw systems. In Sulur, a residential colony had nearly 45 houses and all the houses had solar energy systems. The region also had 40 to 45 solar farms, mostly located in Tirupur district. Even in The Nilgiris, there were four installations. Several private cottages are installing solar rooftop systems in the Nilgiris, the official said. There are independent houses, High Tension consumers who have Low Tension service connection for some purposes in the industry, and government-aided institutions that are installing solar energy rooftop systems. There are also dedicated feeders connected to solar energy farms. Nearly 22 MW of rooftop solar energy systems have been installed by High Tension consumers, which are mostly large industries. S. Dinakaran, president of Tamil Nadu Electricity Consumers’ Association, said that nearly 15 textile mills have gone in for solar energy systems for purposes such as lighting and running mini motors. Most of the solar energy installations (roof top) by industries now are on experimental basis. The industries are also studying options and feasibility of hybrid farms where they can have windmills and solar energy panels. “Lot of negotiations are on for one MW installations. With recession, industries had not invested much in the last one year. But, they are studying the possibilities now,” he said.