Solar Energy System
Mar Athanasios College For Advanced Studies Thiruvalla (MACFAST) added another feather on its cap of achievements by becoming the State’s first solar-powered campus in 2011. MACFAST installed a 30KW rooftop solar power plant envisaging a yearly production of 45,000 units (kilowatt hours) of electricity which could meet half of the annual power demand of the institution. Electricity Minister, Aryadan Mohammed, inaugurated the solar power plant at MACFAST as part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the college on Saturday, 22nd, November 2011.The design and installation of the solar power plant was done by Radiant Solar Private Limited, Hyderabad with approval and support from the Union Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and ANERT attached to Department of Power, Kerala. The college invested Rs 72 lakhs in the solar power project. The institution exerts immense care in the timely maintenance of the solar plant for its effective functioning. In 2018 November, the solar plant was upgraded to 130 KW for meeting the increasing power consumption.
The project is significant not only in terms of its size and technical attributes, but also in terms of its demonstration to the community. The innovative campus-based solar power plant is MACFASTs answer to the demand for Green Energy. Renewable energy that has little impact on the carbon footprint is the only viable solution to address the increasing energy needs of the country in an ecologically sustainable manner. The system has got 370 panels, 30 KW state of the art bi-directional charger capable of functioning as an interactive inverter and 100 KW with grid-tie capability, four-member charge controllers, a 19-inch rack, a central monitoring device package and UPS (for 100 KW).