Coimbatore: The Kovai Medical Center and Hospital (KMCH) has become the first ever hospital in the South that now meets most of its power requirements from solar power, said a release issued by the hospital.
Dr. Nalla G. Palaniswami, chairman and the managing director of the hospital along with its directors, recently commercialized the facility of 4Mwp solar power plant. This comprises of 16,032 solar panels laid across 20 acres of land near Karur on a total 40 acres acquired by KMCH earlier. Currently, this KMCH solar power plant produces 18,000 units of electricity per day and will be completely used by its main hospital on Avanashi Road for all its operational function.
Inspired by the green energy theme, the chairman decided to setup a larger scale 4MWp (to be expanded to 8- 10Mwp) solar PV plant as part of its green initiatives.
This was installed in an area of about 20 acres at Ariyur village near Karur. The project was awarded as turn key project to M/s. Swelect Ltd (which was earlier known as Numeric Power Systems).
The project components include PV modules of 16,032 x 250Wp capacity manufactured by seraphim and inverters of 4 x 1 MW capacity manufactured by SMA, Germany. With the commissioning of this installation, it is expected to generate a maximum of 22,000 units per day, but ensuring an average of at least 18,000 units a day, and would suffice to meet the power requirement of the hospital.
“When we had realized that the power bill is on the raise, we contemplated possibilities of various alternates. We consume around 25,000 unit (Kwh) a day at the hospital. By producing this energy with our own resources and also strictly adhering to the green norms, the same would transcend a message to the health care industry the importance of green energy concept,” said Dr. Nalla G. Palaniswami.
