Months after mulling over the idea of switching to solar energy, the Ahmadabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) finally seems to have made up its mind. The civic body has geared up to light the city by using natural source of energy – solar power. And for this, the AMC had even sought technical guidance from the Gujarat Energy Development Authority (Geda).
To begin with, AMC is promoting the use of solar lights in city parks and gardens. It has also floated tender for the purchase of solar technology and equipment; tender has been floated for 200 solar poles.
The AMC plans to raise at least 1,000 solar poles across the city. “As of now, we have floated tenders for 200 poles. But we aim to have at least 1,000 solar poles in the city by 2011,” said deputy municipal commissioner IK Patel.
The AMC officials said the solar poles are very expensive; each pole cost them around Rs24,000. The civic body has therefore decided to invite fresh bids for its purchase.
“We intend to cover all parks and gardens in Ahmadabad, and will require around 900 poles for this,” he added.
The use of 200 solar poles will save around 8,000 watts a day; each electricity pole consumes 40 watts, said an AMC official.
Realizing that the AMC officials’ knowledge with regard to the use of solar energy is limited, the civic body decided to take help from Geda.
The officials said they were not only enlightened about the wide application of this natural energy, but were also made familiar with technical aspects like specifications on purchase of the technology and solar poles.
