LED, renewable energy helps civic body save Rs 30.25 crore

The introduction of LED streetlights by AMC has helped it save 26 million units of electricity helping it reduce its power bill by Rs15.50 crore a year. With this measure, the civic body says the carbon dioxide emmission would be reduced by 2,900 tonne anually.

Not only this, the wind and solar power initiatives by the AMC alongwith the LED will help it ease its wallet burden by a total of Rs 30.25 crore.

"We have implemented energy conservation programme under which we have installed 1.35 lakh LED bulbs on 2,800 km of road network," said Deepak Suthar, additional chief engineer, streetlight and project, AMC. He added that by the end of January 2018, AMC will replace 14,000 more conventional streetlights with LED bulbs. "To generate a kilo watt of energy from fossil fuel, 0.546 emission of carbon dioxide occurs. We don't use that much energy, and it has been saved. We have calculated the consumption, hence we are saying that we will reduce emission of 2,900 tonne of carbon dioxide annually," the engineer explained.

Meanwhile, a 4.2 MW wind power plant has been commissioned by AMC at Nakhtrana in Kutch which generates 11 million units of energy, which saves Rs7.14 crore a year. Another 4.2 MW capacity's wind power plant is under construction. Both will help AMC save Rs14.3 crore a year. The civic body has also installed 540 KW solar rooftop power system as a part of renewble energy which generates 6.5 lakh electricity units annually which will help it save Rs45.5 lakh.

However, city based environmentalist Mahesh Pandya scrapped AMC claims: "Construction business is mushrooming here. There is a loss in tree cover. Even for the Metro rail project, more than 2,000 trees were chopped."

...& ANALYSIS

• The AMC’s green efforts which are also pocket savvy are laudable. Its effort to calculate its CO2 emission reduction by introducing LED lights and renewable energy measures is noteworthy. But, it is high time that the wealthiest civic body in Gujarat shifts its focus to calculate carbon footprint on a yearly basis regularly.