The Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary in the City Beautiful has embraced solar energy for power generation. Two solar photo voltaic (SPV) power plants have been commissioned in the sanctuary to generate electricity. With this, the sanctuary has become free from conventional energy sources.
The UT Science and Technology Department has installed two SPV power plants of 5 KWp capacity each, atop the rest houses in Kansal and Nepli to run electrical equipments. The city’s Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary spreading over an area of nearly 26 sq km is a home to large number of animals, birds and mammals species. There are around 150 small and large water bodies in the sanctuary.
“At present, two SPV power plants are functional in the sanctuary. And, one more SPV power plant of 2 KWp capacity will be installed atop the guest house in the forest area,” said Santosh Kumar, Director, UT Science and Technology Department and CEO CREST (Chandigarh Renewal Energy, Science & Technology Promotion Society) while talking to The Pioneer.
He said, “There are three beautiful rest houses namely Kansal loghut, Kansal Inspection hut and Nepli Inspection hut inside the sanctuary. Among them, two rest houses are installed with SPV power plants and now, completely run on solar power.” “The city’s sanctuary is free from conventional energy resources. But, another SPV power plant will be installed to overcome the technical snags and power supply interruptions faced at present,” he added.
These installed SPV power plants are with battery bank, which stores electricity produced during sunlight. like other SPV power plants installed in Chandigarh, these are also interactive with the grid system and the extra power supply is transferred to the main grid system of the city. Following in the footsteps of Bharatpur’s Keoladeo Bird Sanctuary and others, the UT Science and Technology Department had last year chalked out the proposal to tap unconventional energy sources for lighting in the sanctuary.
The 26 sq km area due to its ecological faunal, floral, geomorphological, natural and zoological significance for the purpose of protecting, propagating and developing wildlife and its environment was declared as wildlife sanctuary by the UT Administration in a notification dated March 6, 1998. Notably, the ambitious project of developing Chandigarh as a ‘model solar city’ was formally launched during last year.
The SPV power plant projects are being executed by CREST (Chandigarh Renewal Energy, Science & Technology Promotion Society) here. As of now, 2 MWp SPV plants on 27 different buildings have been installed in Chandigarh and another 3 MWp SPV plant is under installation. The master plan to make Chandigarh a solar city, which has been approved by the Centre, has set a target of 5 MW electricity generation by 2015 and 10 MW by 2018 through roof top solar power plants.