Tata Power Solar and Dell International Services India have built India’s largest vertical solar farm of 120 kW.
The 45 meter structure built on Dell’s Bengaluru campus provides the dual benefit of producing green energy and insulation of the building, helping reduce power consumption.
The project is a foray for Tata Power Solar into vertical solar structures which have the potential to transform urban energy management, utilizing a fraction of the real estate which is at a premium in cities.
The solar farm, envisaged by Dell, produces enough energy to light-up its cafeteria and basement parking. While this significantly reduces the energy consumption of Dell, the panels itself act as solar insulation by blocking the south sun and thus reducing the power consumption of the air conditioning.
To integrate the 480 modules, manufactured by Tata Power Solar, scaffolding was built. The project was on a 11 storied building wall. The vertical structure was designed with a 30 degree moving tilt to better enable maintenance.
“While solar energy generation was one of the qualifiers to attain the prestigious Green Building Platinum LEED certification, we have created the plant at almost four times the requisite capacity, demonstrating our commitment to going green,” said A Anil Uthappa, Sr. Project Manager at Dell International Services India.
“We see tremendous opportunity, especially in urban regions, to deploy such vertical solar projects with multiple benefits. We hope more corporates follow Dell in implementing such pioneering and green initiatives,” said Ashish Khanna, ED & CEO, Tata Power Solar.
Tata Power Solar, which is rated tier-1 module manufacturer by Bloomberg New Energy Fund, has shipped 1 GW modules to over 30 countries.