Saint-Gobain India & IIT Madras Research ink pact to promote renewable energy in buildings – EQ Mag Pro
The objective of the partnership is to focus on addressing energy challenges and promote maximum use of alternate energy sources
French glass and building material major Saint-Gobain and IIT Madras Research Park have signed an agreement to collaborate on technologies to promote maximum use of clean energy as part of net-zero carbon emission objectives.
As part of the MoU signed on Thursday, Saint-Gobain India will be supporting IIT Madras Research Park with a funding of ₹1 crore over the next 3 years.
Objective
The objective of the partnership is to focus on addressing energy challenges and promote maximum use of alternate energy sources. With a focus to develop sustainable models and ensure energy efficiency, IIT Madras Research Park plans to create a energy storage mechanism within the campus that will allow it to operate primarily on energy generated from renewable sources.
On successful demonstration, the approach could help demonstrate the technology readiness and commercial viability of moving towards 100 per cent renewable energy in commercial complexes.
“The idea is to set up a solar or wind plant in Tamil Nadu under captive mode and wheel the energy to the research park. Since solar and wind are not available 24/7, we plan to build a storage system for energy. We have already built cold water storage where we chill the water when we have excess energy and use it whenever required. Similarly, we are going to build lithium-ion battery storage that will help us put the storage for clean energy.
And we are going to do it in a commercially viable manner. It costs lesser than the cost of electricity, including the cost of the storage, its depreciation cost and interest rate. Once we prove this, this is doable in any commercial building in the country,” Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, President, IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP) and IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) told BusinessLine during the interaction.
The collaboration aims to showcase the IIT Madras Research Park campus as a model for other commercial building complexes in the country.
The pilot demonstration of the model will be developed in 3 years within the institute.
“Together, we will collaborate in areas such as research and application on renewable energy storage, advanced technology, innovation, and knowledge for sustainable changes. We are looking forward to working on similar models to take the lead to help India achieve the target of 100 per cent renewable energy,” said P Padmakumar, Executive Director – Human Resources and Head-CSR, Saint-Gobain India.
