Rajasthan has been integral to the country’s solar plans since the state has solar energy in abundance. Many people expect the region to lead by example and this is where, the Central University of Rajasthan (CU-Raj) has opted to utilise solar resources to meet 60 per cent of its energy needs.
The university is the first in the state and among the eight central universities formed by the HRD ministry to have successfully utilised solar energy to meet daily requirements. The campus has four buildings with a monthly requirement of 600 KW electricity (for November), of which 420 KW is being generated by solar panels. It is now planning to install four solar units of 30 KW each and one of 1 MW in the next six months to become the first university in the country to run 100 per cent on a renewable source of energy. Till now, the university has granted Rs 30 million for the project.
Electric poles of 400 watt each across the university have been installed that are driven by solar panels. “These automatically become active after sunset and switch off automatically during sunrise. Throughout the day the cells recharge themselves to a level that they could run for 16 hours,” said Adarsh Tyagi, assistant engineer, CPWD, Ajmer.
Equipment like fans, tube lights and computers, which are below 9 KW can be operated by solar energy and there are not many academic institutes across the global, which can boast of possessing this energy resource.
“The production of solar energy is phenomenal and unexpected. Soon, in future we will attain self reliance in terms of power requirement. We would be utilizing the space for tapping the solar energy so that in future we can help in the electrification of nearby villages which still don’t have power connection,” said M M Salunkhee, vice-chancellor, CU-Raj.
