Bharathi Cement Goes Solar With 10 MW Facility in Andhra

Bharathi Cement has commissioned a 10 MW ground-mounted solar power plant in its manufacturing facility at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh

One of India’s leading Cement manufacturer, Bharathi Cement has announced that it has commissioned a 10 MW ground-mounted solar power plant in its manufacturing facility at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, as part of its long-term plan to transition to Renewable Energy sources.

The 10 MW facility will generate close to 1.6 crore units of electricity annually and help reduce the company’s overall energy costs by reducing its reliance on Thermal power. The project was executed by Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy (FPE), in a record 60 days.

This 10 MW Solar plant for Captive electricity consumption, is spread across 41 acres in the firm’s 5 MTPA manufacturing unit in Kadapa. French Construction conglomerate, the Vicat Group owns a 51 percent stake in Bharathi Cement and operates this facility.

Guy Sidos, chairman of NYSE-listed Vicat Group inaugurated the 10 MW plant today and said, that the investment in the solar plant reiterates the firm’s global commitment towards renewable energy and sustainable development.

“We are present in 12 countries and have already initiated the switch to solar power across India and Senegal. This is one more contribution towards our sustainability story,” he said.

Anoop Kumar Saxena, CEO, Vicat India & Bharathi Cement added, “With this solar plant, we have reduced our dependence on thermal power and have entirely fulfilled our internal Solar RPOs (Renewable Purchase Obligation).”

Prior to this solar installation, Vicat Group had also engaged with FPE last year to set up a 1 MW Solar plant at our Bharathi Polymers facility.

India is the second-largest producer of Cement in the world, manufacturing over 500 MT in 2018. Vivek Subramanian, co-founder and ED at FPE said, “Cement manufacturing is an extremely energy-intensive process. Our aim is to help businesses like Bharathi make the transition to cleaner energy sources while saving on their electricity bills. Bharathi’s proactive on-site support from their operations team was instrumental in helping our personnel execute this large installation in just 2 months.”

Speaking about the experience of installing large-scale Solar plants in Andhra Pradesh, amidst the controversy over renegotiating PPAs in the State, Vivek Subramanian added, “FPE has executed over 20 projects in this State for clients like Walmart, Andhra Bank, D-Mart and Visakhapatnam Smart City. Andhra Pradesh aims to add 5 GW of solar capacity by 2024 and FPE will continue to work with the government and businesses to help achieve this target.”

FPE has an operational portfolio of over 180 MWp of distributed solar assets across 23 states; and an additional capacity target of 350 MWp for FY20. FPE has forayed into Open Access, as well as expanded its footprint to international markets across South Asia, South East Asia and the Middle East, in recent months.