February 5, 2015: SunEdison Inc, the world’s largest renewable energy company, and Brakes India Limited (BIL), a leading manufacturer of automotive and non-automotive braking systems and ferrous castings in India, announced that they have installed a solar power plant that will generate 7.72MW of electricity at Brake India’s facilities in Munanjipatti in the state of Tamil Nadu.
“We are proud to be working with the leading automotive supplier Brakes India to lower their carbon emissions and electricity costs,” stated Pashupathy Gopalan, president of SunEdison Asia-Pacific. “Solar is a great way for commercial consumers in Tamil Nadu to generate reliable, low cost electricity.”
“This system also happens to be the largest solar power plant built to date under the group captive scheme in India,” he added.
“SunEdison was an obvious choice for Brakes India when we began our search for procuring solar power,” said S Kesavan, CEO of Brakes India. “SunEdison’s size, scale, technology and track record of delivering worry-free solar were all very convincing factors in our decision. This SunEdison system is built with state-of-the-art trackers which will allow us to harness more energy from the sun. This collaboration with SunEdison strongly supports our commitment to clean and renewable energy.”
Brakes India approached SunEdison to develop this project to be in compliance with the Solar Purchase Requirement set out by Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) and the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO), which states that high tension wire customers must source 6 per cent of their energy use from solar.
SunEdison will provide financing and install the solar system, which features advanced trackers and high efficiency solar panels to maximize the amount of electricity generated. The system will generate more than 14 million kWh of electricity a year, which will offset more than 6 per cent of Brakes India’s electricity use. The system is built in accordance with the Group Capture Scheme legislation that was introduced by the Electricity Act of 2003, which allows customers to purchase electricity directly from an independent power provider without involving the local energy distribution company.
