TIRUNELVELI: The 1 MW (megawatt) power solar power plant was dedicated to the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University by information and publicity minister Kadambur C Raju in the presence of adi dravida welfare minister V M Rajalakshmi and Tirunelveli MP Vijila Sathyananth on Friday evening.
The plant that was established at a cost of Rs 5 crore can generate electricity required by all the buildings on its premises.
Funded under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan – ministry of human resource development (RUSA – MHRD) a total of 3,080 solar panels were installed on 3.7 acres of the total of 543 acres university premises at Abishekapatti on the Tirunelveli to Tenkasi highway. Electricity generated will be connected to the Tangedco grid.
While the varsity’s requirement is 750 KW, the remaining 250 KW will be sold to Tangedco. Outgoing vice-chancellor K Baskar said that they expect the solar plant to make optimum use of the annual nine-month sunshine period to generate 15 lakh units annually and will meet the futuristic needs of the varsity over the next few years.
It may be recalled that foundation stone for the project was laid by Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit in December 2017. Stating that the installation of the panels and other installation work was completed in about three months, Baskar said that getting approvals took more than six months.
Baskar expressed the need for a speedy single window approval mechanism to expedite the process and motivate those who are planning to go for green energy generation. “They are going to lose interest if they have to run pillar to post to get the approval. We had to wait for four stages of approval from Tagedco alone,” he said.
This was apart from waiting for approval from the local authorities. “The system should be such that the application submitted to the Tangedco is passed onto the next table and approval is given in a time-bound manner,” he added.
The mega solar power plant will also give hands-on experience for 20 students, who are pursuing the newly-started one year post graduate diploma course in renewable energy management and auditing from this year. They are pursuing the course with a monthly stipend of Rs 2,000.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
