If you’ve taken a flight recently, you would have noticed that thousands of rooftops across the country are now covered with solar panels. The falling cost of photovoltaics means that solar energy is no longer restricted to the bungalows of the rich, or government institutions – it is accessible to all. A more recent trend has been the installation of solar panels for billboards. Across cities, especially metros, one can see several electronic billboards showing rich media ads. Why are advertising companies resorting to using solar panels to run such billboards? There are multiple reasons:
- Electricity is the biggest expense when it comes to running a billboard. This has only increased with the rise of digital display billboards. Getting a solar plant for your billboard helps to cut down drastically on this expense, perhaps even eliminating it completely.
- In remote areas like rural highways, power from the grid can be intermittent or completely absent – so a solar panel powered billboard can run 24/7 independently.
- Going green means a drop in CO2 emissions as well as better air quality in the region.
- If the billboard generates more energy than it consumes, it can be plugged into the grid and the excess power can be sold to the local power company for additional revenue. This revenue flows in even when the billboard is not occupied by an ad. According to one Mumbaikar, his billboards only used 3% of the power they generated – so he sells the extra power to the Railways.
It is incredibly simple to retrofit a solar plant to an existing billboard. Here is how the process goes:
- Make sure you have space on the billboard that’s open to the sun. You can expect 1 Kw of power generation per 100 sq ft of space. Depending on the orientation of the billboard, you can install panels on the top as well as the back side.
- Get in touch with Mahindra Solarize – you can call us, email us or fill the form on our website. We will schedule a site survey at your convenience. Our experts will suggest the right setup for you to go ahead with.
- Finalize your order and make the payment. If you wish, you can get financing from our partners.
- Our certified technicians will deliver all the needed materials at your location in one go. A second team of certified technicians will arrive soon and complete installation of the solar panels on your billboard.
- Our partners will get all the necessary approvals from your local power utility.
- Our team will install net metering and get the solar plant on your billboard going. It will be connected to the grid. You can choose extra options like power consumption monitoring, if you wish.
- If you ever have questions or face issues, we have a support team to assist you.
100 sq ft of panels can generate 11,000 to 16,000 units of power per year. Solar panels last 25+ years, and the long term savings for billboard owners are immense. Electricity tariffs rise almost every year meaning that renewable energy and grid independence are all the more important. If you’re planning to install solar panels on your billboard(s), do get in touch with us and we will be happy to guide you through the process.