Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy has commissioned a 10 MW ground-mounted solar power plant for Bharathi Cement at its Kadapa cement manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. This plant was executed in a record 60 days, and will generate close to 1.6 crore units of electricity annually.
The solar plant, for captive electricity consumption, is spread across 41 acres in Bharathi Cement’s manufacturing unit in Kadapa.
India is the second largest producer of cement in the world, manufacturing over 500 MT in 2018.
Highlighting solar’s importance for the cement industry, Fourth Partner Energy co-founder and ED Vivek Subramanian said, “Cement manufacturing is an extremely energy-intensive process. Moreover, the Centre’s focus on better infrastructure and affordable housing to all by 2022 implies this segment is ripe for growth. Our aim is to help businesses like Bharathi make the transition to cleaner energy sources, while saving on their electricity bills.”
“Bharathi’s proactive on-site support from their operations team was instrumental in helping our personnel execute this large installation in just 2 months.”
On their plans for Andhra Pradesh amidst power purchase agreement renegotiation controversy, Vivek Subramanian added, “Fourth Partner Energy has executed over 20 projects in this State for clients like Walmart, Andhra Bank, D-Mart and Visakhapatnam Smart City. Andhra Pradesh aims to add 5 GW of Solar capacity by 2024 and Fourth Partner Energy will continue to work with the government and businesses to help achieve this target.”
“This investment into the solar plant here reiterates our global commitment towards Renewable energy and Sustainable development. We are present in 12 countries and have already initiated the switch to solar power across India and Senegal. This is one more contribution towards our Sustainability story,” said Guy Sidos, chairman of French construction conglomerate Vicat Group, which owns 51% stake in Bharathi Cement and operates the Kadapa facility.
Vicat India and Bharathi Cement CEO Anoop Kumar Saxena added, “With this solar plant, we have reduced our dependency on thermal power and have entirely fulfilled our internal solar renewable purchase obligations. This is in-line with the objective of the International Solar Alliance, initiated by India and France in 2015.
Prior to this solar installation, Vicat Group also engaged Fourth Partner Energy last year to set up a 1 MW Solar plant at its Bharathi Polymers facility.
Fourth Partner Energy has an operational portfolio of over 180 MWp of distributed solar assets across 23 states, and aims to add further 350 MWp in FY2019-20. The company is also working on energy storage solutions and developing EV infrastructure across the country.
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It is extremely peculiar that on one hand AP Government is permitting premium customers to set up large solar plants – while harassing independent solar plants –