Bengaluru apartment complex makes rooftop solar statement

Being the city that is the beneficiary of an average of 2,365 hours of sunlight a year, it is a wonder that many buildings do not operate on solar power

Dr. CN Ashwath Narayan, Minister of Higher Education, IT and BT commissions the largest rooftop solar photovoltaic power plant for a residential apartment complex in Brigade Gateway, Bengaluru. Credit: DH Photo

An apartment complex in Bengaluru is having its moment in the sun as it showed the way in adopting green energy in a major way.

One of the largest and most advanced solar power installations in the country was brought online across 13 towers of the Brigade Gateway Enclave in Malleswaram on Saturday, a move that will help the complex harness the 2,365 hours of sunlight the city receives annually.

Covering 19,300 square feet of rooftops and using micro-inverters on each panel, the 354.4 kilowatt system will potentially help save up to 530 tons of carbon emission annually, said Sunil Thamaran, MD Enphase Energy India.

“Whereas other solar systems operate using string-inverters, our system operates on micro-inverter technology," Thamaran said. "Each solar panel generates 50 volts of Direct Current (DC), which goes to the attached micro-inverter and is converted into 230 volts of Alternating Current (AC)."

According to Thamaran, "there are advantages to this system". "If one of the micro-inverters fails, the system will largely remain unaffected and will continue to work,” he said.

“This is not the case in string-inverter systems where the entire system feeds generated power to one major inverter, which is susceptible to failure,” he said, adding that each micro-inverter has an Internet-of-Things (IOT) connection, allowing for real-time monitoring of the inverters.

But does this mean that the apartment complex will be going off the grid? Not exactly.

Srinivas Kumar, CEO of RenXsol, the firm which installed the system, said the panels will generate some 4.78 lakh units of power annually, whereas the apartment complex consumes about 6.92 lakh units annually as of now. “Solar power will satisfy up to 69% of the power demands of the complex’s common areas and elevators,” he said.

Another highlight, Kumar said, is that the "system is tied to the state government’s Net Metre scheme”.

“For example, the system generates 110 units during the course of the day and about 50 units are used during daytime by the apartment complex. So the balance 60 units, which have been ‘exported’ to Bescom, will be used by the apartment complex at night,” he said.

Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who is also the minister for IT/BT, lauded the apartment complex for taking “one more step towards becoming a sustainable enclave”.

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