the World Bank ( wb ) has cleared the second instalment of its assistance to a solar power project in West Bengal. For the first time in the world, a 26-kilowatt (kw) solar power plant with photo-voltaic cells is being set up and one or two villages are being covered with transmission lines. According to experts, solar power is as good as the power available from conventional power plants and supplied through grids.
The Bank has earmarked a fund of us $42 million for assisting solar power projects in India. However, inexperience in setting up such projects has resulted in committing only about us $ 20 million of the wb 's promised assistance.
West Bengal is one of the few states which have shown encouraging progress in developing solar power.
The first two solar power plants in West Bengal were set up on Sagar island without any assistance from the wb . Each project has the potential to light up as many as 150 households on the island, which otherwise, cannot be covered by the conventional power grid of the mainland.
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