Three windmills have helped the Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative (Campco) Ltd to meet 67.15 per cent of its power requirement for chocolate manufacturing.

Campco opted for green energy sources a decade ago to meet a part of its power requirements at the chocolate factory at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district.

These three units produced 39.95 lakh units of power in 2018-19 as against 39.90 lakh units in 2017-18.

In 2008-09, the cooperative set up a 1.25 MW windmill in Hoovinahadagali taluk of Ballari district. Campco installed two more units of 0.85 MW each in Chikkodi taluk of Belagavi district during 2011-12.

Mentioning that the windmills continue to yield good results, Campco’s annual report for 2018-19 said nearly 67.15 per cent of the factory’s total energy requirement was fulfilled by three windmills during the year.

The 1.25 MW Hoovinahadagali windmill produced 16.75 lakh units during 2018-19 as against 17.95 lakh units in 2017-18. Two other units of 0.85 MW each in Chikkodi taluk produced 23.20 lakh units during 2018-19 as against 21.95 lakh units in 2017-18.

Suresh Bhandary, Managing Director of Campco, had told BusinessLine that the cooperative needs around 60 lakh units of power per year for its chocolate factory in Puttur. He had also mentioned that the windmills help Campco in saving more than ₹90 lakh a year in power bills.

Recently the board of directors of Campco had approved the establishment of a 400 kw rooftop solar power plant at the chocolate factory in Puttur.

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