India’s largest container port, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) will now harness solar energy and reduce its dependency on conventional electricity from the grid. JNPT is installing solar power plant on several rooftops in its township and commercial premises.
This green initiative by JNPT is part of its push towards becoming the most sustainable energy generation port organisation in India. Rooftop solar plants allows the use of roof of buildings, an area which is otherwise not usable, for sustainable energy generation also ensuring financial savings. With this new initiative, JNPT is expected to get a payback on its investment on rooftop solar within 2.5 years due to its high cost of grid electricity (around Rs. 14 per unit).
This 822 KWp of solar rooftop capacity is being installed at an expense of Rs 4.5 crore, supported by a 15% subsidy from SECI (part of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy). The 822 KWp project once commissioned will generate around 9.9 lakh units of electricity thereby saving around Rs.1.08 crore of electricity expense for JNPT in the first year. Out of this 411 KWp is commissioned at Rooftop solar installation at JNPT premises i.e. Hospital- 234 KW, St. Mary School- 45.6 KW, IES School- 36 KW in the township and Port User Building (PUB)- 96 KW.
The renewable energy of 234 KW generated from Rooftop solar installation at hospital has capacity of 25,350 KWh per month and is contributing 80% of approximate present consumption. The total 411 KWp will generate around 4.95 lakh units of electricity in year 1 contributing to 40% of approximate present consumption of these 4 premises, thereby saving around Rs. 0.54 crore of electricity expense for JNPT in the first year.
This is a small but a significant step in the Central government’s widespread initiative to promote solar energy in our country and will contribute to the government’s ambitious target of having 1,00,000 MW of solar capacity installed in India by 2022.