State Bank Of India goes Green

The biggest bank of the country has become the first bank in the country to venture into generation of Green Power by installing windmills for their captive use, as part of its ongoing Green Banking initiative, said a State Bank release on Friday.



The State Bank has installed 10 windmills with an aggregate capacity of 15MW in the States of Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Power generated by these windmills will be wheeled to various HT consumption points of the bank spread across these States.

O.P.Bhatt, Chairman of the Bank on Friday inaugurated the windmills at Panapatti site, Vadaputtur village, Pollachi Taluka, Coimbatore District.

Speaking on the occasion, Bhatt said that "Amongst the players in the Financial Services Sector, State Bank has taken the initiative to be in the forefront in initiating steps for combating climate change and reducing our carbon footprints and we propose to take the initiative forward for which this beginning has been made in acquiring Green Power, with a view to making the Bank as nearly energy neutral as possible over the next five years".

He further said: "Windmills are set up with a definite objective of reducing the dependence on the polluting thermal power and not on purely economic and business considerations".

The project has been brought to fruition in a record period of four months from the time of its conception by Suzlon Energy Limited, who won in the open bid for the project.

"Bank is planning to set up an additional 20 MW capacity of windmills in the State of Gujarat, once clarification about the feasibility of wheeling of power even to our LT consumption points is received from the Gujarat Energy Development Authority," said Bhatt.

This project directly results in reducing the carbon foot print of the Bank and paves the way for others to follow.


--IBNS