Solar sets factory, commercial units roofs ablaze.

Anand Sunderasan, the head of Indian operations of Schwing Stetter, the German concrete machinery manufacturer, rues the orientation the roof of the company’s factory in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai. The roof, like most others in the industrial suburb, slopes East and West from a rib in the middle but Sunderasan would have so much preferred it to be sloping south.

He could then populate the 7,00,000 sq feet of space with solar panels enough for at least 600 kW of capacity. The problem is not insurmountable, literally and figuratively, but a south-sloping roof would have been a desk-thumper.

HBL