Vellore :
A petrol bunk here has emerged as the unique outlet in northern part of the State as the bunk never stops functioning, thanks to the solar power plant that has been installed on its premises.
The plant has helped reduce the dependency of the bunk on conventional power supply by over 75 per cent and also maintain consumer satisfaction at one-go, said its proprietor Ravikumar.
According to him, the diesel power generator as a standby back-up was no longer used as the bunk was running on solar power round- the-clock. A couple of years ago, Ravikumar had toured European countries from where he got the idea of solar power for running the bunk. “I saw quite a number of bunks using solar power in Italy and Germany where sun energy was scarce. Vellore being blessed with sun energy all through the year, I wanted to tap that energy,” he noted.
He searched the Internet to identify solar power plant suppliers and after nearly a year, when the State was reeling under acute power shortage, he realised his dream with the help of Tiruchy-based company Energy Solutions.
Today, the 3 KW solar power plant, installed at a cost of `4.5 lakh, meets all the power requirements of the bunk throughout the day. “My workers used to feel lazy to switch on the diesel generator whenever the electricity supply was cut, causing inconvenience to consumers and losses to me. After the installation of the solar unit, they have no issues as power is available all the time,” Ravikumar said.
According to him, Vellore district has around 100 bunks and Ravikumar never misses the opportunity to convince his colleagues on the advantage of solar power. “But they are still skeptical about investing money,” he added. He is already dreaming of his next project of installing 50 KW solar power plant in order to supply power to the EB grid at an estimated cost of `10 crore, if he gets State government’s support. “I have been trying to avail myself of the subsidy from the government for the past six months but in vain,” he added.
Based on the good feedback on solar power plant, a mosque in Sholinghur has now installed a 1 KW solar power plant and a shoe unit near Vellore is opting for a 2 KW solar plant. “The government should simplify the solar power policy to motivate people to switch over to this energy,” said Sundar of ‘Energy Solutions’, who has struggled to install around 70 KW of solar power plants in Vellore and Erode districts since 2012.
“There is a huge demand from people to opt for solar power but government is not making use of it,” he said.
Social activist R Chandrasekaran said instead of offering subsidy, the government should offer income tax holiday for consumers who have installed solar plants. The local bodies could provide discounts on property tax and water tax as incentives for households that have installed solar power plants, he added.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by V NarayanaMurthi / August 12th, 2014