Bosch solar water project cuts diesel use

German engineering major Bosch Ltd Tuesday commissioned a solar water heating project at Novotel Techpark here that is estimated to reduce diesel consumption by 55 percent and 42.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide gas emission per annum.

Touted to be the first of its kind in the country, the system makes use of solar thermal collectors developed by Bosch to absorb heat from the sun's rays and use it to heat water in a storage tank.

"The project is designed to provide hot water at 60 degrees Celsius temperature to the Novotel star hotel in the Techpark, located in IT corridor," the company said in a statement later.

As a joint initiative of the Techpark and Bosch Thermotechnology with partial funding from the German Energy Agency-Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (Dena), the green project was installed to promote sustainable development of renewable energy technology in India.

"Our solar water heating system will help Novotel save on diesel used to heat 34,000 litres of water in boilers daily by heating 12,000 litres of water with solar thermal collectors at one time," Bosch India's energy business head C.M. Venugopalan said on the occasion.

As a supplier of technology and services in mobility solutions, industrial technology, consumer goods and energy, the company's Indian subsidiary has 10 manufacturing sites and seven development and applications centres across the country.