The company worked with CleanMax Solar to install solar panels covering 7,300sq m of rooftop, spread over three bays. They will provide an estimated total capacity of 730 kilowatt-peak (kWp), producing around 1.1m kWH annually, and will cover 67% of the plant’s energy requirements.

Suhas Baxi, managing director of the sub-region of South Asia at Konecranes, said: ““By taking unused roof space and transforming it to the productive task of making clean energy, we will save about 1,300t of carbon emissions per annum, which is as good as removing 400 cars off the road.

“We want our product to be known as the best on the market from an energy efficiency point of view, so this initiative is very timely and very relevant.”

The solar power is also around one-third less costly than power from the grid, said Baxi: “So efficiencies and environmental benefits of the installation will flow downstream to our customers via cost savings and efficiencies in producing our own energy-efficient products, including the latest CXT and process cranes produced at Pune.”

Konecranes is also able to feed excess power back into the grid. The solar power generated by the installation will save the company approximately 2.5m rupees a year on its power consumption costs.

“This is the first major solar plant installation for Konecranes globally, providing an initiative by which Konecranes India has set even higher sustainability goals not only amongst the global Konecranes family, but also for manufacturing generally, by showing what is possible,” said Baxi.