The Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd is focusing more on green energy sources to meet the requirements of its chocolate factory at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district. The cooperative is planning to install a rooftop solar plant at the factory.
Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director of Campco, told
The design has been finalised for the project, and the agency to install the solar plant will be finalised soon. Campco is hopeful of getting around 5 lakh units of power from the proposed plant.
The cooperative had set up a 1.25 MW windmill in Hoovinahadagali taluk of Ballari district in 2009. This was followed by two more units of 0.85 MW each in Chikkodi taluk of Belagavi district during 2011-12. These units help generate 45 lakh units of power a year. This helps meet nearly 75 per cent of the energy requirement of the chocolate factory. Campco needs around 60 lakh units of power for its chocolate factory in Puttur.
Asked about the cost advantages, Bhandary said these projects help bring down the cost of the power by around ₹2 a unit. The windmill units help Campco in saving around ₹92 lakh a year in power bills. He hoped that Campco can save another ₹10 lakh a year with the implementation of the solar power plant at the chocolate factory.
The combination of windmill and solar plant may help the cooperative save around ₹1 crore a year in power bills, he added.