Paint roofs white: Delhi’s new ‘save power’ mantra

The Delhi government has come up with a unique mantra to check power consumption in its offices — paint the roofs white and generate biogas from kitchen waste!

The national capital has been going through one of its worst-ever power-crises due to the extended summer and heat wave. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit has on several occasions publicly appealed for judicious power consumption, saying Delhi’s increased power requirements were causing outages. With her appeals not yielding results, Dikshit wants to initiate power conservation measures through her government. The CM and several senior bureaucrats met officials of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to consider available options to cut down power consumption in government buildings. After the meeting, it was decided that government buildings should have “white/cool roofs”. The exercise is likely to begin in the Delhi Secretariat.

“A concept relating to white/cool roof was mooted at the meeting. This will reduce roof and outer temperature, as the white roof will reflect incoming solar heat. This will help save power as temperatures inside the building will fall. The concept will also help restrict global warming,” a government official said.

BBE also suggested extensive use of CFL bulbs. And to promote energy-efficient buildings, the government must stress on generating biogas from kitchen waste. A pilot project on biogas generation from kitchen waste has been initiated in the Tihar jail complex.

“Once the government sets up biogas generation systems in its buildings it can suggest five-star hotels, hostels and other important buildings/complexes to do the same,” the official said.