The Coimbatore Corporation’s solar power plant in Ukkadam may soon turn into a study centre for engineering students, if the civic body goes ahead to implement the suggestion by Municipal Administration Secretary Harmander Singh.
During his visit to the plant and a few other places in the city on Saturday last, Mr. Singh told the Corporation officials to explore the possibility of establishing a study centre at the solar power plant so that engineering students get to learn about solar power generation.
Based on his suggestion, the Corporation has started the work of preparing a basic report to float tender for establishing such a study centre.
At the Ukkadam solar power plant, the Corporation has installed 3,168 photovoltaic panels, spread over four acre, to generate one MW power at ₹ 5.50 crore.
The plant started generating power about a fortnight ago and is at the trial run stage.
The plant premises has another acre of vacant land on which the Corporation plans to set up the study centre, officials say.
The Ukkadam solar power plant is one of the two the Corporation had planned for the city.
The second power plant is to come up at the Corporation’s old dump yard in Kavundampalayam, which is also of one MW capacity.
Preliminary work
The Corporation had commenced preliminary work at the Kavundampalayam plant and placed the metal frames to hold the photovoltaic cells.
But as a few of the metal frames were stolen, the Corporation decided to construct a compound to secure the place before starting work.
The officials say that the compound construction is over and the civic body will soon start installing the cells.
The Corporation plans to use the power generated from the two solar power plants to offset the power consumption at its Velliangadu water treatment plant.
