THE SUN ON MY ROOF

THE COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL SEGMENT ACCOUNTS FOR THREEFOURTHS OF THE COUNTRY'S ROOFTOP SOLAR INSTALLATIONS, DRIVING INDIA'S RENEWABLE ENERGY PUSH

- MANISH PANT

MARUTI SUZUKI unveiled Asia’s largest 20-megawatt peak (MWp) carport-type solar power plant at its Manesar facility near Delhi in June. With this, India’s largest carmaker joined the front ranks of commercial and industrial (C&I) trailblazers that are increasingly harnessing solar power to meet their energy requirements.

With solar panels mounted on the overhead shade of a parking shelter the size of nearly 23 football fields, the facility will contribute 28,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per annum to the company’s energy requirements. This is equivalent to the energy required by Maruti to produce 67,000 cars. “Our company has been committed to the cause of expanding the use of sustainable energy options to optimise operations. The power generation from this initiative will constitute over 11.5 per cent of the power requirement of the facility at Manesar,” says an excited Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director & CEO of Maruti Suzuki.

Rooftop solar installations, like the one at Manesar, are very popular in India. In FY22, the country added 1.7 gigawatt (GW) of rooftop solar capacity, the highest ever in a fiscal. Such installations were up 136 per cent compared to 719 MW in FY20, according to a report by consultancy firm Mercom Communications. An increased focus on sustainability is prompting companies like Maruti Suzuki to either incrementally expand renewable energy utilisation or go green by switching over to 100 per cent renewable energy. In the first quarter of FY23, 456 MW of rooftop solar capacity was added, the second-highest for a quarter. If the trend continues, India’s solar capacity addition in FY23 will surpass the FY22 number towards the end of the fiscal.