The Gujarat government told the media on Saturday that four of Gujarat's public-owned electricity distribution companies have signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 3,979 small-scale distributed solar projects with an aggregate capacity of 2,500 MW. They said that these small-scale distributed solar projects that are to be commissioned within the next 18 months would bring in an investment of over Rs 10,000 crore in the state to develop green energy and allied sectors. Saurabh Patel, state energy minister, told the media that the development is a significant boost towards the State's commitment to promoting renewable energy. Gujarat notified the Policy for Development of Small-Scale Distributed Solar Projects in 2019, which aims to aid the development of solar projects in the State's distribution network with the size of 0.5 MW to 4 MW. The government said that this would provide a fillip to the country's mission of achieving 175 GW renewable energy objective by the year 2022 and 450 GW by 2030, as set by the Prime Minister. Patel said that this would facilitate the rapid development of solar projects in areas with non-fertile land and also encourage the participation of entrepreneurs and small investors. According to the 2019 policy, the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) has invited applications from individuals, co-operative societies or artificial juridical person, company or body corporate or association of individuals, to set up such small scale solar projects and supply power to the discoms at an applicable tariff of Rs 2.83 per unit for 25 years. The release said that UGVCL, DGVCL, MGVCL and PGVCL, which are state-owned discoms, received 12,404 applications for an aggregate capacity of 7,959 MW solar power from small scale project developers within three months in spite of the difficulties faced due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Gujarat Energy Regulatory Commission (GERC), state's energy regulator, approved the draft PPA and extended the signing date at a tariff of Rs 2.83 per unit up to 31 May 2021, at the request of the developers considering difficulties caused due to the pandemic. Image Source Also read: ReNew Power to set up 2 GW solar module unit in Gujarat Also read: Tariff dispute: Solar players vs Gujarat power