Solar power for streets

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The city’s roads will be soon dotted with solar and wind energy powered street lights. The city corporation is in talks with a private agency for installing street lights using solar and wind energy.

To begin with, plans are afoot to install energy-efficient lights on the Edappally railway overbridge (RoB) and on Chathiyath Road.

During a recent corporation council meeting mayor Tony Chammany, while replying to a question on the lack of street lights along the Chathiyath Road and the Edappally RoB, said that the civic body was planning to introduce innovative and energy-efficient street lights, using wind and solar energy.

A Delhi based agency submitted a proposal to the corporation to set up street lights using renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.

The mayor and the town planning committee chairman, K.J. Sohan have held discussions with the agency representatives.

Talking to Deccan Chronicle, the mayor said, “We’ll make a visit to Delhi, where the agency has set up solar and wind energy powered street lights, in order to assess their feasibility.

The corporation team will also visit other municipal corporations where the project has been successfully implemented. The project will be put in place after assessing its viability in other metro cities.”

The corporation has adopted a policy in favour of energy saving and measures like installing solar street lights will be taken for energy conservation, the mayor added.

According to experts, wind could be a potential energy source that could be used to power even homes and businesses.

Earlier, the civic body has decided to install energy-efficient street lights on selected stretches of the roads in the city. It has invited tenders for installing energy saving LED lights along the MG Road and Marine Drive.

The ministry of new and renewable energy has recently included the city in its ‘solar city’ programme, which aims at promoting the use of renewable energy in urban areas.