The University of Hyderabad has set up its first solar power plant on the campus installing a 100KW rooftop plant at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Library on the campus.
The Vice-Chancellor, Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, inaugurated the plant on Sunday after it was installed in a record 30 days.
The plant with 440 solar panels can generate 100 KW power and it was manufactured by PEC, a public sector company with a cost of Rs. 2 crore of which the Government of India will pay 30 per cent as subsidy.
Uninterrupted power
The library, one of the largest in the country, requires power round the clock as most students use the air-conditioned ‘reading halls’ till late in the night, and consumes about 600 units of power per day costing Rs. 1 lakh per month.
The solar plant will provide uninterrupted and stable power of 500 units per day and the whole system lasts for a minimum period of 25 years. After solar power plant installation, the entire building becomes grid independent.
Prof. Ramaswamy also revealed that the University was planning to have a 9 MW power farm in a phased manner on the campus in the near future to cut mounting electricity bills.
The unusable area near ‘High Tension” power lines will be utilised for setting up a solar power farm with a capacity of 9 MW power supply, he said.
The cost of 1 MW power farm is about Rs. 6.6 crore. The University consumes 13 lakh units of electricity per month for its academic buildings, hostels and other residential areas, and incurs an expenditure of more than Rs. 1 crore towards its monthly electricity bills.
