Infrastructre relief: Thane to get green energy

To meet the demands of the infrastructural growth in Thane, the city is exploring  various ways of tapping into the environment-friendly energy sources like solar energy, micro hydro power, desalination of creek water, etc.

Earlier, the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) had done solar net metering at the ward offices.  Now, it plans to generate power using solar energy and sell it.  “We would like to be a licensee and generate power as well as be a distributor,” said the TMC commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal. The TMC has kept a budget of Rs 2 crores in the next fiscal year for the purpose.

Similarly, the civic body is going to fit a 500 square meter solar dish at its Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa. The power generated using this dish will be used for air conditioning (AC) at the hospital.  Work on this project is underway and will be completed by June, 2018.

Moreover, eco-friendly power will also be generated through micro hydro power projects which will tap the energy in water pipelines. This will help generated 60 kilowatt power. Similarly, three buildings near the lakes in Thane - TMC headquarters at Pachpakhadi, Wagle estate ward office and Ram Ganesh Gadkari Rangayatan - will have an unusual source of cooling.  The water in their surrounding lakes will be used to generate geo-thermal energy which will provide air conditioning to these three buildings. A budget of Rs 2 crores have been earmarked for the same.

PATH TO SMART CITY

Thane has become the first in the country to have  a district cooling system.  It was selected by the UNEP to implement  the system which provides centralised AC to commercial structures.