Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), a subsidiary of India’s state Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), has commissioned solar photovoltaic (PV) projects aggregating 6.063 MW within the MRPL refinery premises in Mangalore, Karnataka.

The capacity comprises both ground‑mounted and rooftop solar PV projects.

According to MRPL, 34 rooftops in the refinery premises are being utilized for rooftop solar PV projects.

MRPL tendered the capacity in September 2017. Tata Power Solar Systems emerged as the winning engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor to develop the project.

Previously, Mercom had also reported on the tender floated by Numaligarh Refinery, a group company of Bharat Petroleum Corporation, for a 1 MW solar project to be developed at the Numaligarh Refinery facility located in Golaghat, Assam.

Tata Power Solar Systems developed the project at a cost of ₹270 million (~$4.14 million). The project is expected to generate more than 24,000 units of electricity per day amounting to more than 8.8 million units per annum.

Tata Power Solar Systems will provide operation and maintenance services for 25 years for the project.

Apollo Pipes Limited (APL) also commissioned a rooftop solar PV project of capacity 1.2 MW at its manufacturing facility in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.

According to Mercom’s solar quarterly market update, rooftop installations in the country grew by 56 percent year-over-year with cumulative installations totaling nearly 1.6 GW as of December 31, 2017.

Karnataka’s solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity crossed the 5 GW mark in the first quarter of 2018 to transform it into India’s top solar PV state.

Image credit: MRPL