Berhampur: Berhampur University in Odisha’s Ganjam district has decided to install rooftop solar plants of 95-kw capacity in four more new buildings, as a part of its green campus drive, an official said.
The solar plants will be installed in the newly constructed two hostels for girls, a new boys hostel and the residential quarter of the vice-chancellor, the official said Thursday.
The university has already installed an on-grid 30-kw rooftop solar plant at its Central Instrumentation Center (CIC) in the first phase with an investment of Rs17 lakh.
“We have already placed an order for installation of solar plants of the state-government-owned Odisha renewable energy development agency (OREDA) in the hostel buildings, last week”, said Geetanjali Dash, Vice-Chancellor of the university.
The university has sanctioned Rs58.82 crore to OREDA for the purpose, said Sachidanand Nayak, Registrar of the university.
“We will seek funds from the government for installation of more on-grid roof-top solar plants in some other new buildings,” the VC said.
The main objective is to drastically reduce the consumption of energy and to gradually increase the use of solar energy on the campus in its green campus drive.
The university is presently spending an average of Rs10-lakh per month towards the energy charge, she said.
As there is no separate power supply transformer for the university, the students are facing power cuts very frequently. Moreover, the power systems of the university faced threats due to cyclones, as the institute is located near the Bay of Bengal in the coastal Ganjam district.
The power systems in the university were damaged in the super cyclone Phailin which hit near university in October 2013 and took around a month to restore the power supply, officials said.
The proposed rooftop solar plants will be cyclone-proof, which will function in the natural disaster, they said.
Apart from making the university energy-independent, the project will also create awareness of the use of renewable energy amongst students, said Laxmidhar Rout, convener of the project.
PTI