Zest secures Guinness for record solar panels on a billboard

Zest used three 40x20ft hoardings and merged them into one to create a single hoarding of 60x40ft on which 84 solar panels were installed on the rear side of the billboard, which will generate approximately 60,000 units of green renewal energy per annum. The size of each solar panel is 2,279x1134x35-mm with a capacity of 550-watts. Around 1,200 metric tonnes of iron and steel were required to set up the billboards.

Sharing the achievement with PrintWeek/WhatPackaging? during a press conference-cum-panel discussion event held on 5 May at Raheja Classique Club, Andheri in Mumbai, Mustafa Akolawala, founder, Zest said, ''This accord has won us the Guinness World Record for the highest solar panels' installation on a single billboard, which was recorded on 19 April 2023.”

Akolawala: We aim to gain an income of Rs 250-cr in the next three years

Rajneesh Bahl, business head, Zest, informed that in total, as of date, more than 300 solar panels are already installed in the central railway project in Mumbai on the advertising billboards.''The initiative, with the help of Indian railways, will spur the growth of greener alternatives,” he said. "Such innovations boost the OOH industry and increase the value of the billboards.”

Zest’s quest for solar-installed billboards began nine years ago, and in 2019, the idea of installing solar panels on hoardings was conceptualised in partnership with IIT, Mumbai. It was presented to the Central Railways, which was accepted. “We constructed 17 hoardings (11,675-sqft size) and installed 392 solar panels,” said Bahl. Since then, Zest has been working closely with the Central Railways for the installation of solar-panelled billboards.

Akolawala also announced the Hyundai Motor India tie-up as a green partner for the Guinness World Record-winning billboard during the event.