British diplomatic mission vehicles go solar

CHENNAI: The British Deputy High Commission on Thursday became the first diplomatic mission in the country to install a solar-powered charger for electric vehicles and to create a completely green fleet.

Vijay Rangarajan, Director General, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, inaugurated the solar-powered charger facility. To power the EV charger, 16 half-cut mono Passive Emitter and Rear Contact (PERC) solar modules of 400 Watts power were installed on top of the commission building.

The solar modules have an output capacity of 6.4 KW of power and a Li-ion battery storage integration unit with a 4 KW capacity is installed and integrated into the solar plant.

Explaining the facility, Douglas Watson, Managing Director of CityEV, a UK-based company partnering with the British Deputy High Commission, said initially with the installed solar capacity in the commission, the charging will be slow and will typically take several hours for charging but the output capacity will be increased to 22 KW in future which will enable fast charging.

The facility can be installed in hotels, malls and residential complexes where people can stay for a few hours and can get their cars charged.

The British Deputy High Commission has now dumped all its diesel vehicles and has shifted to electric vehicles and for this purpose four charging points are installed in the office.

At present only one charging port is supported by solar and the rest three run on conventional electricity.

The commission will gradually increase the capacity of solar panels and the remaining three charging ports will be powered by solar energy.