Solar Powered Tea Garden

The Peria Karamalai Tea Estate near Madurai, in Tamil Nadu, India, recently flipped the switch on a 3-megawatt solar park that provides 100% of the garden’s power needs.

It is the seventh major project in the region managed by IBC Solar, a German firm that worked with LNB Renewable Energy locally. The solar park replaces a 20-year-old wind power plant. India offers free right of access to power lines to transport electricity for private investors generating alternative power.

Peria Karamalai, founded in 1913, is a 6,000-acre garden producing black tea. It is in the Annamalai Hills of the Western Ghats at an elevation of 1,650 meters.  Production is 500,000 kilos per year. It is one of several gardens owned by the LN Bangur Group that has converted to solar power.