Ahmedabad: Arvind Limited today announced its plans to reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent with the installation of rooftop solar projects across its Ahmedabad, Santej and Bangalore facilities and by shifting from coal to renewable biomass for boilers. As company ramps up further through the three-phase installation, it plans to target 40 MW captive solar capacity over time.

The company in a statement said it has currently installed 16.2 MW rooftop solar at its Santej facility in Gujarat. This is India’s largest installation of rooftop solar at a single location. The rooftop solar installation across facilities will generate 22 million units (KWh) of power per annum. It will contribute in reducing 20,000 tons of carbon emissions annually and over 500,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifetime. Once capacity of 40 MW is reached, overall generation will exceed 55 million units per year and will reduce carbon emissions by 50,000 tons per annum.

Speaking about this initiative, Punit Lalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind Ltd said “We at Arvind are constantly looking for ways to be ‘fundamentally right’, to make sure our progress does not hinder other stakeholders in society, be it through water, cotton, chemicals or energy. The solar rooftops project is part of our renewable energy strategy which will reduce our carbon emissions significantly and we are working to make sure that every one of our facilities and offices will one day run entirely on renewable energy. While we are already running the largest solar rooftop in the country, we will continue to challenge ourselves to further take our captive solar generation capacity to 40 MW.”

Arvind’s current solar installation has been ranked by Bridge2India as largest single site solar rooftop plant in India, said company statement adding that this project at Santej is comprised of over 46,000 solar modules, and over 180 inverters. More than 20,000 man-days were spent in installing this landmark and over 40,000 square meter of old roofs were replaced to make way for this plant.

In 2016, the company initiated the first phase with installation of 4MW of rooftop solar at its Ahmedabad and Bangalore plants. The second phase commenced in February 2018 with the addition of 17 MW. The third phase will include installation of solar plants on the ground and at locations close to facilities, which will take total installed capacity to 40 MW. The company’s total current solar power generation capacity stands at 21 MW across facilities.

The solar rooftops project is one among the many sustainability-driven initiatives that the company is currently pioneering in the country in water, chemical use, cotton growth, etc. The company is running some of its facilities entirely on waste water while. It is also partnering with the global ‘Better Cotton Initiative’.

DeshGujarat