Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium becomes the World’s first solar-powered Cricket venue

Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium becomes the World’s first solar-powered Cricket venue: Bengaluru’s M. Chinnaswamy stadium has always been an entertaining ground for the fans. With its flat nature and short boundaries, fours and sixes come in heaps and that’s what makes up for a treat to the fans. But that is not the only thing it is famous for, and yet another chapter gets added in its book as the stadium becomes the world’s first solar powered cricket venue.

A 400kW Grid Interactive Solar Power Plant has been installed on the roof of the Cinnaswamy stadium. As per the design, this grid can easily power the entire stadium lighting except the huge high-intensity floodlights. “Installing solar panels for power generation is not difficult. Panels are available and can be easily installed. The main part is the design of the building and identifying the right placement of the panels. Once this is sorted, any building can easily be solar powered,” said Srinivas Kumar from RenxSolEcotech Pvt. Ltd., a Bengaluru-based solar solutions enterprise, which powers the project along with MRO-TEK. He added that the longevity of these panels is 25 years and not much maintenance is required.

As per KSCA Secretary Brijesh Patel, the stadium spends around Rs 1 to Rs. 1.2 crores on electricity bills for using about 18 lakh units of power annually. The new initiative will mitigate this cost significantly and is expected to generate 6 lakh units of solar power annually, utilizing a portion of it and selling the surplus to BESCOM.

The project was completed in just 50 days. In the second phase, another 850 kV solar photo-voltaic panels will be installed on the western stands. Once finished, the entire project is expected to reduce 600 tonnes of carbon emission annually.

The solar project has 300Wp, 72 cells, multi-crystalline solar panels, with 20 kW Grid Tie type String Inverters, evacuated with bi-directional metering to BESCOM at HT level of 11 KV substation, under the new BESCOM Net Metering Solar Policy. The excess power will be sent to the BESCOM and Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) will be paid Rs. 9.56 per unit, thus generating additional income for the cricket body.

The project, costing Rs. 4.5 crore will also be able to generate revenues of Rs. 70-80 lakhs every year with the power it generates.

The solar power project, which is expected to reduce KSCA’s power consumption by a great extent, is inspired by Germany’s fully solar-powered Freiburg football stadium.

Patel has also requested BWSSB to supply sewage water from the neighboring areas to the stadium, which can then be treated and used for watering its lawns.

The initiative is greatly commendable for reducing the amount of carbon footprint and over time, we may see many other sports stadiums adopting this strategy.

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