SolarTown Lit Homes when neighbourhood Went Dark During Chennai Floods

CHENNAI: When the whole of Chennai went dark and people remained incommunicado for more than three days during the recent floods, there were some who were leading a normal life with bright homes,fully charged mobile phones and UPS batteries. These were the lucky few who were using solar powered electrical system provided by SolarTown Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (SolarTown).

SolarTown, a pioneer in solar rooftop systems for residential, commercial and industrial customers, has helped Chennai customers with its off-grid solar systems to remain online and provided critical support to them and neighbourhood communities when the State Electricity Board suspended power supply following the devastating floods early December.

Soon after the grid shut down, communications to and from the city had failed, cell phone batteries went dry and that of other personal electronics were depleted. Off-grid solar systems from SolarTown was the sole source of electricity for citizens in Chennai in many areas. SolarTown's customers were able to assist neighbours too by charging their phones and helping them connect with their loved ones. 

“Occurrences like the recent floods in Chennai demonstrated the need for off-grid power sources which can provide critical power during natural disasters,” said Vikram Dileepan, CEO of SolarTown.

The SolarTown's off-grid solar rooftop systems were fully operational during all three days of the grid shutdown in Chennai. They continued to operate even with cloudy conditions, Vikram said.

“Committed to constant innovation, SolarTown has developed a hybrid solution which includes solar microinverters, solar PV, and battery which can work on-grid as well as off-grid during power shutdowns,” said Vikram. SolarTown has successfully implemented this technology into a rooftop solution for residential and small commercial installations throughout Chennai.

Vikram further said that hybrid technology helps customers cut electricity cost considerably. Most of SolarTown off-grid customers have purchased solar system and took advantage of accelerated depreciation tax benefits, with payback periods as low as five years. In addition to purchasing a solar system, SolarTown offers home-owners and businesses the ability to lease a solar rooftop system with no down payment and a fixed monthly lease rate guaranteed to be lower than the DISCOMs, shielding them from rising electricity rates.

With over 100 installations, SolarTown has an impressive customer base of some of India’s top corporates, such as Infosys, Renault-Nissan, Plant Engineering and Aachi Group, and can meet the demand from 1 kW to 300 kW.

India is emerging global leader in solar power: World Bank

A new World Bank report has lauded Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Phase 1 (JNNSM) for its effort to bring down the cost of solar power production in the country and also for achieving 2000 MW of power capacity from a meager 30 MW with in three years.

“What is significant is that JNNSM has been instrumental in bringing down the cost of solar power to a level that is competitive across the world,” says the report. The cost of solar energy has gone down to $0.15 per kWh, making India amongst the lowest cost destinations for grid-connected solar Photovoltaic (PV) in the world.

Solar power can reduce India’s dependence on imports of diesel and coal for power generation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to energy security. It can also be used to power housing colonies, which consumes the major portion of power generated through conventional method.

Growth in this sector will help India increase its share of clean energy and help meet its target of reducing emissions per unit of its GDP by 20-25% by 2020 over 2005 levels.

The report identifies two unique features of the solar program, which has helped reduce tariffs – bundling of solar power with unallocated thermal generation and adoption of reverse auctioning. Such bundling of solar power with cheaper conventional power helped reduce solar power tariffs for distribution utilities. The reverse bidding mechanism enabled qualified bidders to benefit from declining global prices for solar components, thereby reducing the purchase price of both solar PV and Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) for the utilities.

“In a short span of three years, India has made impressive strides in developing its abundant solar power potential. With more than 300 million people without access to energy and industry citing energy shortage as key growth barrier in India, solar power has the potential to help the country address the shortage of power for economic growth,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank country director in India.

“However, while India is clearly emerging as a global leader in the area of solar power, to achieve its target of adding 20,000 MW of solar capacity by 2022, it needs to address the key barriers and constraints that could come in the way of scaling up the solar program,” he added.

The report highlighted several challenges that could act as a barrier to India achieving its solar targets by 2022. These include lack of access to low cost financing; inadequate solar infrastructure; lack of raw materials for several solar PV manufacturers; and an underdeveloped supply chain leading to high inventory costs.

“Building on the success of Phase 1, the program now needs to focus on promoting financing of solar projects by commercial banks, developing shared infrastructure facilities such as solar parks and identifying comparative advantage of Indian manufacturing across the supply chain,” said Ashish Khanna, lead energy specialist and one of the authors of the report.