After the Cochin airport famously went 100% solar, Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport has joined the list of airports in India to sport a rooftop solar. The Airport Authority of India, responsible for pushing this initiative has commissioned a grid connected 700 kWp rooftop plant at the Ahmedabad Airport. Incidentally, the 700 kWp plant is the largest rooftop project commissioned in Ahmedabad, which is likely to set an example for other major Commercial and Industrial players. The power produced by this solar plant will be utilized to power the Terminal 1 building.

Just like most of the rooftop plants in India, the rooftop plant at the Ahmedabad airport has a Net Metering system, which allows all the unutilised power that the system has generated to be fed back into the state grid. With the announcement made to solarise at least 7000 Railways Stations in the Union Budget, it is nice to see that the government and public utility spaces are looking to solar rooftop in helping the country reach the target of 40GW for rooftop solar by 2022. Other than the airports in Cochin and Ahmedabad, several other airports such as those in Delhi, Hyderabad, Kisangarh, Chandigarh etc have installed solar power plants.

MYSUN's View: We at MYSUN believe that this is indeed a positive step. With large empty spaces on the field as well as big rooftops and large electricity requirements, airports are ideal sites for solar installations. With a power requirement of 24x7, solar can actually play a crucial role in not just supplying a large part of this power but also reducing the electricity bills of these buildings. Beyond this, having rooftop solar installed at airports is a great advertisement for the power of solar and works as a great real-time demonstration to the travelers, who would definitely get inspired to replicate the same at their homes and in their workplaces. We would like to see all the airports take to rooftop solar and earn the benefits that the solution brings to the table.

If you are remotely attached to or like to keep up-to-date with the world of solar or aeronautics, there is a good chance you would have heard the name of Solar Impulse. Just to refresh memories, Solar Impulse is a Long Range (LR) solar-powered aircraft project with the aim to demonstrate the extraordinary capability of completing a circumnavigation of the earth using a fixed wing plane powered only by solar cells and therefore bringing glory to the name of renewable and solar energy in particular.

As the name suggests, the Solar Impulse 1 was the first to be built and was a demonstration aircraft capable of flying for about 36 hours. It was a monoplane and flew for the first time in a test flight in December 2009. The Solar Impulse project is piloted expertly by the Swiss Engineer André Borschberg and a Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard. They had initiated the project all the way back in 2003 and by the time the aircraft took flight, the Solar Impulse team comprised of 50 engineers, 100 advisers and about 80 partners. As most projects of this scale, the project is part funded by the Swiss Government and part by private firms such as ABB, Schindler, etc. to name a few. The wingspan of the Solar Impulse 1 was about 63.4 meters with a maximum takeoff weight of 4,400 lb. The aircraft is capable of a cruise speed of 70 kmph with a service ceiling of 8,500m. The first international flight of the Solar Impulse 1 was on May 13, 2011 when the aircraft flew from Switzerland to Brussels in Belgium in 13 hours. In command of the aircraft was André Borschberg at a cruising speed of 50kmph. In comparison to this, a cross-Atlantic flight taken by a Boeing 777 cruises at a speed of about 1000kmph at a service altitude of about 35,000 feet with a positive tailwind. The slow cruising speed of the aircraft meant that it was declared unfit to fly in adverse flight conditions and air traffic had to be routed around the slow moving machine, were among the other challenges it faced. Despite this the aircraft completed its first intercontinental flight in 2012 and then went on to cross the United States in 2013.

Solar Impulse 2 registered as HB-SIB is the successor to the Impulse 2 and took its first flight on June 2, 2014 from the Payerne Air Base. The aircraft featured a larger wingspan at 71.9 meter and a faster cruise speed of 90kmph. The service ceiling of the plane though was same as that of the Impulse 1 at 8,500m. Being a more powerful aircraft than the Solar Impulse 1, the HB-SIB started the circumnavigation around the earth on March 9, 2015. The program was delayed by about 3 years due to a structural failure. The journey around the world began from Abu Dhabi. The Solar Impulse flew primarily in the Northern Hemisphere with 12 planned stops, closely monitored by a control center established in Monaco. The aircraft flew day and night, usually slower at night to conserve power and with pilots alternating between the stops. Poor weather conditions over Pacific and issues with batteries meant that the aircraft took 17 stages to complete the round around the world. It landed in Abu Dhabi back on July 26, 2016.

In the process, the Solar Impulse 2 set several records such as being the first fixed wing-solar powered manned aircraft to circumnavigate the earth. It's flight from Japan to Hawaii lasting 117 hours, 52 minutes covering a distance of 7212km is the longest solar-powered flight, by time and distance. Next challenge up for the Solar Impulse team is to develop an unmanned solar power aircraft and contribute to the fields of communication, observation and surveillance. It is expected the first test flight will be ready by the year 2019.

MYSUN’s take: One of the founders of the program, Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard rightly mentioned that “Our goal is to create a revolution in the minds of people...to promote solar energies – not necessarily a revolution in aviation." At MYSUN we strongly believe that by powering an aircraft that is capable of going around the planet, the project very aptly demonstrates the power of solar. We have already seen spacecraft and satellites using solar cells for power so there is little doubting on the capability of solar. With the cost of building a solar system coming down and government giving the right push, it is clear that solar will emerge as a primary source of power capable of combatting the acute power shortage that our country faces. It is therefore, a matter of when rather than if solar will go mainstream.

Audience like you can play a vital role by becoming a solar ambassador and sharing such unique and powerful applications of solar and motivating your friends, colleagues and family members to take action. So make sure to use the share buttons and bring the right awareness around and motivate those you know to start their solar journey.

Solar today is one of the most hotly discussed topics in India and is poised to become a leading energy source for millions of energy consumers in the years to come. In past 2-3 years, there has been an exponential rise in the installed solar capacity in India. While rooftop solar has made an obvious contribution, at MYSUN we believe that this segment is going to play an even bigger role in the future. Out of the ambitious government target of 100GW for solar, 40GW is expected from installations made on rooftops or from off-grid installations.

I would, in fact, argue that given the right environment, the entire 100GW can be achieved by rooftop solar PV alone. There are multiple benefits of a rooftop installation apart from the economic (high ROI) and environmental benefit that is usually discussed. The biggest advantage in the favour of rooftop installation is that it generates power right at the point of consumption, so there is no transmission loss. Average T&D (Transmission and Distribution) energy loss in India is around 23%. So considering the T&D losses, a rooftop plant of 100kWp is in effect equivalent to a 123 kWp plant located in a remote location.

After having conducted a lot of rooftop surveys for solar, it’s a common observation that many rooftops, due to their poor design, are not able to efficiently accommodate solar in accordance with their true potential. This is mostly because of lack of awareness among builders and architects about the impact of the position of various rooftop structures and obstacles when the house is being planned and constructed. This article will help you understand how you can take care of some very basic and easy to follow things when building your new home so that it is ready to realize its full solarization potential. These are some of the points that the MYSUN team shares when advising someone who is building his house or building and looking to go solar and save energy for a lifetime.

As you are well aware, solar panels generate energy in proportion to the amount of solar irradiation that is incident to the panels. Higher the irradiation, more the generation. To maximize this irradiation, the panels should be positioned so that they are free from shadow for the entire or the maximum possible duration of sunshine on a given day and throughout the year

Apart from trees and neighboring buildings & poles, objects on the roofs such as water tanks, chiller units, etc, tend to cast a shadow on solar panels so they reduce the number of units generated by the solar plant in turn, reducing the financial feasibility of going solar. A little consideration while freezing rooftop design and the location of these structures will help you maximize your solar system size and the energy generation from the solar system.

It is a fact that Sun rises from the east and moves towards south and sets in the west. To get the maximum generation, solar panels should ideally be placed directly facing south and no shadow should fall on the panels from morning untill evening or from 9:00 am to 4:00 PM.

To ensure better generation the following should be considered while designing the home or building:

1. Place all rooftop objects that can create a shadow on the roof such as headroom, water tank on the northernmost side of the roof, preferably in the North-West or North-East corner. This will ensure that the roof area affected due to the shadow of these structures is minimized.
2. Similarly, if you plan to install a solar water heater, place it facing south at northern most side beside the water tank. It will use less space, need less piping work, and will allow for more area for the solar power plant.
3. Any other thing such as DTH dish, Split AC condenser unit should be placed on Northern side (refer the above figure for detail)
4. Industrial and commercial rooftop owners should also place structures such as AC chiller, DG sets etc on the Northernmost side of the roof to have the maximum free area on the southern side.
5. Parapet wall casts a shadow on the roof. The Area covered by the shadow of parapet wall will directly depend upon its height. Since this is required for safety it is recommended to have a minimum height that will ensure the safety of people.
6. If Head Room has a sloping roof, then it is recommended that it be designed such that one side of the roof faces south. This way you will be able to place a few panels on side that faces south, thus utilizing more space.

Constructing and placing these structures per the guidelines above will not only allow a roof owner to install a higher capacity Solar PV system on the roof but will also ensure better generation out of the installed system.

Other things that you can do beforehand to ensure hassle free installation:

1. Provide a provision of channel for cables of solar system from roof to electricity panel.
2. If possible, earth strips/cable should be laid beforehand and earth rods placed in proper earth pits for solar power plant. This will also ensure aesthetics of your house is preserved post the solar system is installed on your roof.
3. One water outlet on roof which can be utilized for module cleaning.

With the above mentioned points in mind, you will be able to get the most out of your existing solar system or go ahead with the best capacity solar system on your rooftop. If you are interested in knowing the most optimum system size for your rooftop, based on your location and electricity bill(or expected energy consumption), you can do so within 10 seconds, by running the MYSUN Solar Calculator that instantly gives you an overview about your solarization potential and savings you stand to make.

If your house or building is still under construction or in design phase, design experts at MYSUN can help you decide the location, orientation and design of any construction that is required to be made on the roof. With the right advice at right time,  you can increase the solar potential of your roof by as much as 60%. So why wait? Register Your Rooftop with MYSUN and be future ready.