Gandhinagar, Jul 3 (IANS): The Gujarat government is planning to upgrade the state's installed capacity in the renewable energy sector to an ambitious 30,000 megawatt (MW) by 2022 and announced a special subsidy scheme to encourage solar energy in a big way.

Finance Minister Nitin Patel, who presented his seventh Rs 2 lakh crore budget in the state Assembly on Tuesday, has announced a special subsidy scheme in the solar energy sector for which the state government will give a subsidy of 40 per cent up to three KW and 20 per cent for a system from three to 10 KW.

Patel said a provision of Rs 1,000 crore has been made for this scheme during the current year. Under this scheme, people can install solar panels on their rooftops and after exhausting their requirement could even supply the surplus back to the power grid.

He said more than 50,000 families were already using solar power at their homes through the government solar rooftop scheme.

"Gujarat aspires to reach a stage where it will not only fulfil its own requirement but also the requirements of other states in the country," the Finance Minister said.

The state's installed capacity of renewable energy has increased to 8,885 MW from 4,126 MW in 2013, he said, adding that plans were afoot to increase this to 30,000 MW by 2022 and 10,000 MW out of this would be sold to other states.