Rural Electrification Corporation extends CSR support to IIT Madras

MUMBAI: Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC), A Govt. of India Navratna Enterprise, has agreed to extend a financial assistance of Rs. 1450.00 Lakhs under CSR initiative to Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), for the project 'Installation of 2 MW rooftop solar panel (SPV) in the academic zone and hostel building' at IIT Madras campus in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) in this regard was executed today between REC and IIT Madras.Ms. S. Jayanthi, Chief Project Manager, REC and Prof Krishnan Balasubramanian, Dean, Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (ICSR), IIT Madras signed the MoA in the presence of other senior officials of REC and IIT Madras including Prof. David Koilpillai, Dean Planning, IIT Madras and Prof R Nagarajan, Dean, International and Alumni Relations, IIT Madras, among others. Speaking about this CSR initiative, Jayanthi said, "We are interested in increasing the generation and consumption of renewable energy all over India. IIT Madras has great potential and expertise in this field and that is the reason we decided to support this particular project."
The main objective of the project is installation of 2.00 MW roof top solar PV system in the academic zone and hostel zone of IIT Madras for power generation in order to reduce peak demand from the grid in the campus and also carbon footprint and dependency on non-renewable energy sources. The energy generated by the solar panels will go to a centralized grid from where it will be distributed across Campus. "IIT Madras already has 1.1MW solar panels installed on the Campus rooftops. This will further help in reducing our dependency on conventional sources of energy. We are thankful to REC for sponsoring a large size project of this nature at IIT Madras and funding it through their CSR channel," added Prof. Balasubramanian.
The installation of the solar panel is expected to take around 15 months. IIT Madras currently has CSR activities supported by over 20 companies.