(TOI)
State-owned gas utility GAIL has commissioned the country’s second-largest rooftop solar power plant with a capacity of 5.76 MWp (mega watt peak) at its Pata petrochemicals complex in UP. GAIL chairman B C Tripathi said the solar plant will reduce the company’s carbon footprint and reduce carbon emissions by 6,300 tonne per annum. The plant is expected to save the company Rs 5.5 crore annually in energy bill and pay back the project’s cost in about four years.
The plant covers 65,000 square metres roof area of two warehouses at the petrochemical complex. “With an expected PLF (plant load factor) of 15% annually, over 79 lakh units of electricity is targeted to be generated for captive use of India’s largest gas-based petrochemcials plant,” the company said in a statement. Solar Energy Corporation of India, a non-profit company under the renewable energy ministry, was the project consultant and Thermax Ltd won the contract in January 2017 to build, operate and maintain it for five years.
