Amp Energy India emerged as one of the winners at the Solar Awards 2021 in the recently-held  Mercom India Solar Summit 2021. The renewable energy power producer bagged the accolade for creating an impact in the Best C&I Project (ground-mount) category with its company’s 30 MW open access solar project in Maharashtra’s Osmanabad district.

Part of Maharashtra’s largest private solar park under the open access mechanism, the project supplies power to Cipla, a leading pharmaceutical company.

Amp Energy India has installed a module cleaning system at the plant and conducted regular cleaning to avoid soiling losses. The project’s central monitoring system helps track and rectify faults on a second-to-minute basis to avoid losses.

Shriprakash Rai, Head of C&I business, Amp Energy India, received the award on behalf of the company. He said, “The project supplies power to Cipla’s six manufacturing units in Maharashtra and helps save energy costs and bring down CO₂ emissions.”

The plant set up in Dahiwadi village of the region’s Tuljapur town is spread over 115 acres and saw a welcome dip in CO₂ emission of 34150 MT in a year.

The project, which used polycrystalline modules and central inverter technology, had two fixed portrait modules with mounting arrangements. The make of the modules used was Waaree 330 Wp /335 Wp. The number of modules installed totaled 90,240 (330Wp-45360 & 335Wp-44880).

Commissioned on December 31, 2020, the project took shape amid the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Talking about the unique challenges specific to the project, Rai pointed at labor migration, lack of manpower, and interference from local authorities and villagers at the height of the pandemic.

Highlighting the measures devised to navigate the crisis, he said that all the requirements for the safety of site workers were met and monitored for any immediate action required. Since arranging a skilled labor force was difficult due to the lockdown, the Amp Energy India team trained and deployed local unskilled manpower to avoid any work interruption.

Mercom had reported in January this year that Cipla will be procuring solar from a 20 MW group captive project in Tuljapur, Maharashtra, in partnership with Amp Energy. In May 2019, Cipla had acquired a 26% stake in Amp Solar.

Image credit: Amp Energy India