REC lends Financial Assistance to IIT Madras for 2MW rooftop solar panel on campus

Rural Electrification Corp (REC) has provided funds of Rs 1450 lakhs under CSR activities to IIT Madras for rooftop solar panel installation.

Rural Electrification Corp (REC) has extended a financial assistance of Rs 1450 lakhs under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) for the project installation of 2MW rooftop solar panel (SPV) in its academic zone and hostel building.

REC and IIT Madras entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). S. Jayanthi, chief project manager, REC and Krishnan Balasubramanian, Professor and Dean, Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (ICSR) at IIT Madras signed the MoA in the presence of other senior officials of REC and IIT Madras including David Koilpillai, Professor and Dean Planning and R. Nagarajan, Professor and Dean, international and alumni relations.

“We are interested in increasing the generation and consumption of renewable energy all over India. IIT Madras has great potential and expertise in this field and that is the reason we decided to support this particular project,” said Jayanthi.

The main objective of the project is installation of 2MW roof-top solar PV system in the academic and hostel zone of IIT Madras for power generation in order to reduce peak demand from the grid in the campus and also carbon footprint and dependency on non-renewable energy sources. The energy generated by the solar panels will go to a centralized grid from where it will be distributed across campus.

“IIT Madras already has 1.1MW solar panels installed on the campus rooftops. This will further help in reducing our dependency on conventional sources of energy,” said Balasubramanian.

The installation of the solar panel is expected to take around 15 months. IIT Madras currently has CSR activities supported by over 20 companies.

Source: ET