Kerela’s first solar powered campus, perhaps the first one of its kind in the whole country, is coming up in Thiruvalla.
Mar Athanasios College For Advanced Studies Thiruvalla (Macfast), the first private self-financing college in the state that had carved a special niche for becoming first on many fronts over the past one decade, is soon to add yet another feather on its cap of achievements by becoming the state’s first solar-powered campus.
Thanks to its visionary founder principal, Fr Abraham Mulamoottil and his successor, Fr Pradeep Vazhatharamalayil, for this praiseworthy achievement.
Macfast has installed a 30 kw rooftop solar power plant envisaging an yearly production of 45,000 units (kilowatt hours) of electricity which could meet half of the annual power demand of the institution.
The design and installation of the solar power plant has been done the Hyderabad-based Radiant Solar Private Limited with approval and support from the Union Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and ANERT attached to Department of Power, Kerala.
According to Fr Vazhatharamalayil, Macfast has invested Rs 72 lakhs in the solar power project, that include Rs 22 lakhs towards capital subsidy from MNRE and Rs 37 lakhs in the form of low interest loan from State Bank of Travancore refinanced by NABARD.
“The project is significant not only in terms of its size and technical attributes, but also in terms of its demonstration to the community the ease with which solar generated power can be installed by small and medium enterprises for their financial and operational benefit, besides the wider ecological benefits to the society. This achievement by a post-graduate college producing the next generation of technocrats, community and business leaders stands as a model to the rest of the country,’’ said Fr Mulamoottil.
