Arvind Unveils India’s Largest Single Location Rooftop Solar System

Once the capacity of 40 MW is reached, overall generation will exceed 55 million units per year and will reduce carbon emissions by 50,000 tonnes per annum. 

Textile firm Arvind plans to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent with the installation of rooftop solar projects across its facilities in three cities and by shifting from coal to renewable biomass for boilers. As the company ramps up the three-phase installation, it plans to target 40 MW captive solar capacity, a company statement said. 

It has currently installed 16.2 MW rooftop solar at its Santej facility in Gujarat. This is India’s largest installation of rooftop solar at a single location. 

The rooftop solar installation across facilities will generate 22 million units (kWh) of power per annum. It will contribute to reducing 20,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually and over 5,00,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifetime. Once the capacity of 40 MW is reached, overall generation will exceed 55 million units per year and will reduce carbon emissions by 50,000 tonnes per annum. 

Punit Lalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind said in the statement, “The solar rooftops project is part of our renewable energy strategy which will reduce our carbon emissions significantly and we are working to make sure that every one of our facilities and offices will one day run entirely on renewable energy.” 

This project at Santej is comprised of over 46,000 solar modules and over 180 inverters. More than 20,000 man-days were spent in installing this landmark and over 40,000 square meters of old roofs were replaced to make way for this plant. 

In 2016, the company initiated the first phase with the installation of 4MW of rooftop solar at its Ahmedabad and Bangalore plants. The second phase commenced in February 2018 with the addition of 17 MW.

The third phase will include installation of solar plants on the ground and at locations close to facilities, which will take total installed capacity to 40 MW. The company’s total current solar power generation capacity stands at 21 MW across facilities, it added.