Solar, wind energy power Vile Parle building

MUMBAI: At a time when the city is reliant largely on electricity generated by the burning of coal and gas, a seven-storeyed apartment building in Vile Parle stands

MUMBAI: At a time when the city is reliant largely on electricity generated by the burning of coal and gas, a seven-storeyed apartment building in Vile Parle stands out for using renewable sources to meet its energy needs.

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Fourteen years ago, Harendra Shah, 70, and his brothers — Rajendra, 68, Pankaj, 66 and Shailesh, 60 — set up one of the first windmills in the city atop Dolat building opposite Cooper Hospital at Vile Parle (West). It included nine solar panels. The system now produces 2 kilowatt hour (kWh) peak power daily — 1.5kWh from the windmill and 500Wh from the solar panels — which is used to run the lights, fans and a computer in each of the floors. A Mumbai house with two bedrooms uses — on an average — around 8 KWh electricity daily.

Thanks to these alternative sources of energy, the family saves 33% of their electricity bill every month. Originally Rs9,000 per month, it now costs Rs6,000 to provide electricity to the entire building. In the past seven years, the family saved Rs2.5 lakh in electricity expenses.

They recovered the cost of the project within seven years of its inception. After setting it up at the cost of Rs5 lakh, they received a subsidy of Rs2.5 lakh from the state within three years.

“Since all four of us are engineers, we knew the exact dynamics of such a project. We knew how it would benefit us today, even 14 years ago,” said Shah. “The solar-plus-wind energy hybrid system works as a stopgap arrangement during power failures. During the 2005 deluge, it helped us tremendously during power outages. On a sunny and windy day, we are able to access peak power of 2kW per day. During the monsoon, it drops to 1.5 to 1.7kWh a day,” said Rajendra.

A solar water heater installed on the rooftop is powered using two of the nine panels, which heat up 1,000 litres of water daily. The water is then used in 18 bathrooms across the building.

The brothers have decided to install a net metering system — that allows excess solar electricity generated to be sent back to the grid, which the family will be compensated for by the electricity supplier — by the end of the year.