Indian IT Major Infosys Plans To Go 100% Solar By 2018
One of India’s leading IT companies, Infosys, has an obligation to procure renewable energy as per the country’s electricity regulations, but the company is going a step further and planning to meet its entire power demand from solar power projects.
In 2013–14, Infosys procured 75.6 million kWh from renewable energy projects. This is equivalent to about 30% of the company’s total electricity consumption. Infosys has large office campuses across India, but none of the states have a Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) of more than 10%. So, the company is already way ahead of power utilities and other major industries in its effort to increase the use of clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The company is now planning to source its entire power demand from solar power projects by 2018. A cumulative demand of 175 MW is expected by the company in 2018. It will invest in developing solar power projects.
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Infosys has already commissioned 2 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) power capacity at 2 of its campuses and plans to add 20 MW of in-house solar power capacity over the next 2 years. The balance capacity would be commissioned through off-site projects. Once operational, the 175 MW of solar power capacity would be able to offset over 270,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions every year. Last year the company announced a 50 MW solar PV project in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. These measures would help Infosys achieve its target to become carbon neutral by 2017.
Several mid and large-size companies in India are now looking to develop captive solar PV projects to meet their electricity demand. Improvement of transmission and distribution infrastructure in India has lagged the country’s economic growth and the government has removed subsidy on diesel which has led to industries switching to the now-economical solar power.
Image Credit: Infosys Bengaluru Campus via Amit | CC-BY-SA 2.0
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