PUNE: Kalpataru Estate Phase 1 Co-operative Housing Society of Pimple Gurav area recently installed a solar grid project of 27 kilo watt. This grid connected solar power plant produces 100-120 units of electricity every day, which will be used for common utility like lifts, street lights, club house, etc. The installation of this solar plant started in March 2018 and continued till November 2018. The estimated life of this plant is 25 years.
The society is availing solar power since January 1, 2019 and the plant will be inaugurated on the occasion of Republic Day and officers from Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) and Maharashtra Energy Development Agency (MEDA) have been invited to grace the occasion.
Rahul Kumar, a resident of the society, said, “A major portion of maintenance cost was electricity bill, Rs 35,000 each month for society’s common utilities. We did a thorough study to know how much units were being consumed and what capacity of solar plant was required. This is a grid connected power plant and therefore whatever power generated is not consumed by us, it goes in the grid and can be utilised by others.”
“In a way, this plant is helping us in reducing our maintenance cost and we are able to contribute towards environment conservation for sustainable development,” he added.
Ganesh Wadkar, another resident, said, “The total cost for this project is Rs 16 lakh while MEDA has given us rebate of Rs 4 lakh, which was another motivation for us to install this plant. We are supposed to pay the total balance in four years while the total life of this plant is 25 years.”
He added that with the help of this plant, they were able to reduce 850 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to planting 1,400 teak trees.
Narsinh Naikwade, Project Officer, MEDA, said, “It is a very good thing that societies are taking such efforts and awareness is increasing everywhere. MEDA always encourages such developments, as we give 30 per cent subsidy as well. This effort not only reduces the load of electricity bill on people but is also an effort to use resources for sustainable development and environment conservation.”
