CSIR- CMERI Inaugurate World’s Largest Solar Tree in Ludhiana

In a bid to promote the usage of solar energy, the Council For Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)’s Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) has developed world’s ‘largest solar tree’ which was inaugurated today S. Balkar Singh Sandhu, Mayor of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation. The solar tree has been installed at ‘CSIR-CMERI-Centre of Excellence for Farm Machinery’, Ludhiana, Punjab and is officially certified by Guinness World Records (GWR) as the Largest Solar Tree. The total solar PV panel surface area is 309.83 square meters surpassing the previous record of 67 square meters.

Rated for a capacity of 53.6 kW, the solar tree has used 160 PV panels with a rating of 335 W each. There is one on-grid inverter of 50 kW. The total area used for the civil structure and foundation is 28 sq.m. The total cost of the project has been Rs 41.6 lakhs, (with two inverter changes during it’s 25 year rated lifetime). O&M costs have come in at Rs 0.62 per unit.

Besides AC power through the inverter, part of the output is also being used for DC power that can power specific appliances and applications developed by the organisation, in the form of DC powered cooking set up and more.

The inaugural launch was attended by other dignitaries Prof. Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur; Prof. M.K. Jha, HoD, Centre of Energy and Environment, NIT Jalandhar; Prof. N. Tejo Prakash, Professor at School of Energy and Environment, TIET, Patiala.

According to Prof. (Dr.) Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, the solar tree is meant to be a demonstrator of the possibilities using solar for farmers across the country.

The solar trees have wide applications such as distributed power generation to cater the needs of different integrated faming activities of charging e- tractors, e-power tillers & EV charging station, running agriculture pumps for irrigation needs, solar based cooking system for food preparation needs at the farm site, powering the cold storage needs of the farm produce thereby increasing the shelf life.”

Prof. Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur while addressing the media person announced innovative technologies –

• Biomass insulation cold storage – This technology works out to be cost effective yet easy to manufacture. The peculiarity of this technology is the cold storage is manufactured using dried biomass which has very good thermal insulation properties. The cold storage developed at CSIR-CMERI, can attain minimum temperature of 2°C with 100% humidity. This can help the marginal famers to increase the transit shelf life of the agricultural produces like fruits and vegetables. This technology can help to maintain the balance of commodity prices between demand and supply of the agricultural produces which is not only beneficial to farmers but also to the consumers.
• Islanded Solar Biodiesel Hybrid Minigrid of 50kW – This technology helps in fulfilling energy needs of a typical housing Colony or a small village. Peak load and average load profiles are prepared for different seasons and optimal mix of Solar Phovoltaics and Biodiesel based power generator are installed which are currently supplying power. The hybrid inverter deployed have the capability to accommodate different energy sources and control the output with appropriate switching strategies to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

The Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) is the apex R&D institute for mechanical engineering under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).