Spykar And Arvind Lead The Way As Indian Textiles Go Solar For A Winning Marketplace Proposition
Image Courtesy of Spykar
Electricity is most necessary input that a Textile mill needs today and it has always remained an area of concern in this segment.
The Textile industry has been early adopter of renewable energy in India and has contributed largely in the growth of clean energy in the country.
Many textile mills have set-up captive power plants, wind mills and now solar power plants. With the evolution of solar ecosystem in India and knowing the numerous advantages of solar energy, textile industry has embraced the solar power and started to deploying solar systems in a fairly big way.
To tap the vast potential of solar power and provide efficient and cost effective solutions, many companies (EPC players, developers and installers) are working closely with the textile industry providing tailor made solutions based on customer requirements.
Spykar, India’s leading homegrown denim brand, has taken yet another step towards generating a greener carbon footprint.
The brand has embarked on a journey to increase its dependency on solar power to 60 per cent. Spykar’s production facility currently boasts of zero fossil fuel usage and relies on solar power for 30 per cent of their energy requirement.
“Spykar has always been at the forefront of global thinking, be it fashion or the world environment. Our processes have been designed with a vision to minimise climatic impact and lead the way for sustainable development. We realise that even consumers today are sensitised and lean towards brands who subscribe to a betterment philosophy,” said Sanjay Vakharia, CEO of Spykar Lifestyle. (PC)
Arvind Limited, the home-grown $1 billion textile major, has installed a 16.2 mega rooftop solar project, at its Santej facility in Gujarat. The project, the company claims, is the largest rooftop solar project yet in the country.
Arvind, in the meanwhile, plans to scale up its solar power capacity to 40 MW across its Ahmedabad, Santej and Bangalore facilities.
Punit Lalbhai, executive director, Arvind Ltd., said : “We plan to reduce our carbon emissions by 30% with the installation of rooftop solar projects across our facilities and by shifting from coal to renewable biomass for boilers. We are working to make sure that every one of our facilities and offices will one day run entirely on renewable energy. While we are already running the largest solar rooftop in the country, we will take our captive solar generation capacity to 40 MW.”
India has the fifth largest power generation capacity in the world. The country ranks third globally in terms of electricity production.
India has also raised the solar power generation capacity addition target by five times to 100 GW by 2022. The Union Government of India is preparing a 'rent a roof' policy for supporting its target of generating 40 gigawatts (GW) of power through solar rooftop projects by 2022.
The Indian Textile Industry has always been amenable in adapting newer and more efficient technologies.
The textile sector is one of the highest energy consuming sectors in the country.
Textile processing covers steps ranging from singeing (removal of protruding fiber) to finishing and printing of the fabric and manufacturing polyester, polyester fi lament yarn, acrylic, nylon, viscose, cotton textiles, etc.
Textile processing requires a lot of hot water in the range of 40–110˚C at various stages of the process. The requisite heat can easily be generated through solar energy.
Why Solar for Textile
Solar gives textile manufacturers control of one of the critical cost variables, power, and provides them a long-term differentiation.
While as a percentage of conversion cost spinning mills have higher percentage, dyeing and fabric units will also benefit from its adoption.
The early adopters of solar power who avail themselves of AD and REC benefits currently available would have built a long-term differentiator for their businesses and a winning proposition in the marketplace.
The grid power costs are expected to escalate at six per cent YoY, moreover accessibility of grid power is also challenging, resulting in higher usage of diesel increasing overall energy costs. It is essential to have energy security for the future and also minimize the current diesel consumption costs leading to faster payback of the solar investment.
Rooftop Solar Plants:
Rooftop solar plants on the other hand are located on textile industry’s premise only. Site of solar energy generation and consumption being same, the line losses reduce.
Additionally no open access charges are borne by the industrial consumer.
Accelerated Depreciation benefit can be availed by textile industry to save their taxes.
But unlike captive consumers, solar energy consumption from rooftop power plants requires 100% investment on capital cost, if the asset is purchased under capex model.
Textile industry itself entails a good amount of investment.
An additional investment on rooftop solar energy plants may look a burden for them. Although banks provide 70% debt to raise the capital cost, the balance 30% equity still runs into few crores for 1 MW solar plant.
Besides, the maintenance of rooftop power plants is entirely a responsibility of the owner/industry itself.
A financier or EPC raises the capital cost for them. In turn, the textile industry pays for the use of solar energy generated from power plant periodically.
Conclusion
The incredible drop of solar module prices and the growth of the solar ecosystem have created the ideal situation for more widespread adaption of solar PV systems. Textile industry can benefit hugely by deploying solar projects in large scale.