Rooftop solar on three toll plazas on Talapady-Kundapura NH 66 stretch produce average 521 units power per day

NHAI's rooftop solar plants on three toll plazas generate 521 daily units, saving 1.87 lakh conventional power units annually.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Mangaluru Project Implementation Unit (PIU), has been producing an average of 521 units of electricity per day through rooftop solar power plants installed on its toll plazas at Talapady, Hejmady and Sasthana on the Talapady-Kundapura stretch of Kanniyakumari-Panvel National Highway 66.

Concessionaire M/s Udupi Tollway Pvt., Ltd., has installed the plants on behalf of NHAI as the green highway initiative of the Authority. Each toll plaza has been provided with 60 Kw capacity of grid connected rooftop solar plant to generate electricity, said a senior official of the NHAI. Solar plants have been erected on rooftop of the toll plaza canopy and therefore no additional space is required, he explained.

The official said solar power will give a sustainable voltage and will avoid the breakdown of electrical and electronics equipments installed at toll plazas. Consequently, the lifetime of equipments will increase thereby helping uninterrupted traffic management systems at the plazas.

Without polluting the environment, the solar power plants will reduce 1,837 tonnes of CO2 emission for the remaining concession period from the period of installation, January 2025 to September 2026. With the estimated savings of 1,87,632 units of conventional power a year through the solar plant, the concessionaire/ NHAI could save at least ₹20 lakh a year towards energy bills, the officer said.

The three toll plazas consume an average 1,416 units of raw power supplied from Mangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd, amounting to 42,480 units a month (January-December). The solar power plants meanwhile produce an average of 521 units of power daily, that is, 15,636 units a month. Thus, the concessionaire/the NHAI save at least 1,87,632 units of power out of the total consumption of 5,09,760 units a year, the official explained.

Considering 0.89 kg of carbon gets discharged to the environment for every Kw conventional power produced, the annual carbon savings through the three solar plants will be 1.67 lakh kg or 1,837 tonnes for a period of remaining 11 years of the concession period, he added.