120 kW Rooftop Solar for Bindal Agencies — Chennai — Solar

Scope

• Solar

• 120 kW rooftop solar
• Metal-sheet industrial roof
• Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Capacities delivered

• 120 kW rooftop solar PV

Engineering challenge

A 120 kW rooftop solar plant for Bindal Agencies in Chennai, laid out on a metal-sheet industrial roof that it shares with rows of turbo ventilators.

Our solution

• Module rows set out around the roof’s existing turbo ventilators rather than over them, so the roof keeps its natural ventilation and every ventilator stays reachable for service.
• Rail-mounted modules fixed to the sheet profile with clamps, keeping the array close to the roof plane and following its slope on each side of the ridge.
• Gaps left between row blocks along the ventilator lines, giving maintenance staff a route across the roof for cleaning and inspection without stepping on modules.

Approvals

Work of this scope typically runs through the following statutory approvals, which we manage end to end:

• CEIG approval — HT installations, DG sets and solar
• DISCOM net-metering

Outcome

• A 120 kW rooftop solar plant installed on the Bindal roof in Chennai, adding to Secured Engineers’ executed work outside North India.

Lessons and engineering considerations

• On a ventilated factory roof, survey the turbo ventilators, skylights and exhausts first and design the array around them. Covering a ventilator to win a few panels costs the building its air change and the plant its access.
• On metal-sheet roofs, fix to the sheet with clamps sized for its profile and confirm the sheet and purlins with the building owner before loading them; the roof is the structure the plant stands on.