December 2015
Sankara Nethralaya shows the way to sustainable green energy
It was an operation with a difference for Sankara Nethralaya, the institution engaged in bringing back the ‘Light of Vision’ rose admirably to the challenge of bringing in the sunlight into its premises to augment its energy needs through solar energy. The institution realized that leveraging solar energy was not only a cost saving measure but a moral responsibility, in a region blessed with perennial and abundant sunshine and the high cost accrued by the government towards generating power. Once the decision to go ‘Green’ and go ‘Solar’ was taken, the technical team at Sankara Nethralaya’s main campus did an elaborate search and evaluation of companies engaged in harnessing sunlight into electricity and ‘SHAN Solar’ was selected after strict scrutiny of cost and capabilities and after taking into account their extensive experience, flawless track record in execution and high accreditations in the field.
After a thorough evaluation of the need for energy and availability of space it was decided to install rooftop solar plants which would generate a total of 121.68Kwp plant across 12,000 sq ft of rooftop space spread over the CU Shah Sankara Nethralaya, Nava Suja Sankara Nethralaya and Jaslok Community Ophthalmology Centre. In a wonderful demonstration of coordination and team work between the vendor’s installation team and Sankara Nethralaya’s technical team the same was installed in a record time of 60 days, the critical process of connecting the solar energy system to the internal electricity grid was completed in a record of 1 hour duration in all locations, the noteworthy feature of the entire operation being its total non-interference with the day to day functioning of the hospital.
The solar energy harnessing process adopted at Sankara Nethralaya comes with an almost 0% maintenance cost, the results have been highly encouraging and reflect significant savings within a short span of their operation, it is to be borne in mind that these savings would be recurrent in nature and would also keep enhancing as the tariff on State supplied power keeps escalating every year.
As an institution Sankara Nethralaya has come for praise not only for its clinical best practises but also for its self sustaining economic model and this initiative would be a strategic move in this direction, as a service oriented non-profit the institution believes in expending every penny most frugally and judiciously and the colossal savings in energy cost would be one more effort towards this. Last but not the least the massive reduction in its carbon footprint by 150 tonnes a year comes as a matter of great relief and true value addition to an environment conscious and ecology friendly institution.
State of Texas confers critical role of ensuring engineering best practices, safety and compliance on senior SN OM Trustee
Shri Sam Kannappan who is among Sankara Nethralaya’s oldest well wishers and supporter in the USA and dynamic SN OM Trustee from the Houston region is known for being a guide and pillar of support to the Indian community in Texas. Among the prominent early Indian settlers in Texas, he made a mark for himself in the State through his extraordinary professional excellence, deep commitment and active participation in social causes, utmost humility and charitable disposition. The US government and leading technology giants have sought his expertise in diverse and critical areas like ensuring gas pipeline safety from sabotage, waste water management, power peak energy reduction initiatives, safety of satellite and power plants, laser measurement accuracy and so on with great success, in the past. The latest recognition of his professional acumen and dedication comes in the form of his being appointed as the Secretary of the Texas Board Of Professional Engineers, a critical role which would place the huge responsibility of evaluating and certifying nearly 57,000 engineers aspiring to practice in the State, ensure best practices and total safety in all engineering processes through adherence to prescribed compliances.
Sankara Nethralaya family expresses its joy and amazement at one of its oldest supporters in the US balancing between his trail blazing professional achievements on one side and a deep and selfless commitment for social and religious causes on the other. The entire Sankara Nethralaya family salutes and congratulates Shri Sam Kannappan on being assigned this highly critical and challenging role and wishes him the very best in his endeavours.