Tata Motors and Tata Power on Friday announced the inauguration of India’s largest Solar Carport in Pune, that is estimated to reduce 7,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.

The 6.2 MWp solar carport deployed by Tata Power will generate 86.4 lakh kWh of electricity per year and is estimated to reduce 7,000 tons of carbon emissions annually and 1.6 lakh tons over its lifecycle, a regulatory filing said.

“In line with Tata Group’s philosophy to promote green manufacturing, Tata Motors and Tata Power jointly inaugurated India’s largest grid-synchronized, behind-the-meter solar carport at the Tata Motors car plant in Chikhali, Pune,” it added.

Spanning over 30,000 square meters, this carport will not only generate green power, but will also provide covered parking for finished cars in the plant.

“We have always been conscious of the need to conserve energy and are committed towards achieving 100 per cent renewable energy sources for all our operations. Our partnership with Tata Power to deploy India’s largest solar carport at our car plant in Pune is a step in that direction,” said Shailesh Chandra, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors.

Envisioned as part of its net zero carbon goal for 2039, Tata Motors had entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Tata Power on August 31, 2020.

Despite the challenges of COVID-19, both companies successfully managed to develop this massive carport infrastructure in a record time of 9.5 months.

Our partnership is a testament to our collective efforts to lower the carbon footprint and provide innovative and future-focused green energy solutions. We will continue to explore new ways to harness clean resources and offer them to our partners and customers,” Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power said.

Being a signatory of the RE100, Tata Motors is committed to use 100 per cent renewable power and has taken several strides towards achieving this goal by progressively increasing the proportion of renewable energy used in its operations. In FY20, the company generated 88.71 million kWh of renewable electricity which is over 21 per cent of its total power consumption (up from 16 per cent in FY19).

This helped prevent the equivalent of 72,739 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The company further intends to source renewable energy more rigorously to meet its aspiration of sourcing 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

Tata Power has executed multiple large solar solutions including the world’s largest rooftop (16MW) at a single location at Radhasoami Satsang Beas (RSSB), Amritsar; 2.67MW at Cochin International Airport; world’s largest solar powered cricket stadium-Cricket Club of India (CCI) with 820.8 kWp capacity; unique installation of solar vertical farm (120kW) at Dell Technologies at Bangalore and 1.4MW floating solar at Tata Chemicals, Nellore.

In addition, Tata Power is carrying out an extensive pan-India residential rooftop program to make people aware of the benefits of savings through solar energy.