That's what the Renewable Energy Ministry is trying to bring about by making Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House and historical monuments run on bio energy

Green revolution

That's what the Renewable Energy Ministry is trying to bring about by making Rashtrapati Bhawan, Parliament House and historical monuments run on bio energy

The centre of power in India is going green.
So what if an Indian scientist was accused of committing major goof ups while predicting the melting of Himalayan glaciers. The Indian government is trying to ensure that it earns carbon credits enough to feed several cities.

Au00a0larger view: Minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah
announcing initiatives to make government buildings run on sustainable
energy.u00a0pic/Imtiyaz Khan

The first in line of a number of initiatives, announced on Tuesday by union minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah, are aimed at making government establishments rely completely on sustainable energy. A similar project, Roshni, is on at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Abdullah confirmed that the next major building to be taken up under the plan is Parliament House. "Yes, we are planning to make Parliament green in every sense. Energy conservation projects would be replicated at all Raj Bhawans and state assemblies too."

Abdullah said the scheme under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission is aimed at using solar cells to meet the day-to-day energy requirements and popularising the same to make cost effective for general public as well as the industry.

He elaborated that since permission to install solar panels on the dome of Parliament was not granted, the ministry is looking forward to install the panels in the lawns of the Parliament Annexe.
"If everything goes as per schedule, we are confident that the project would be completed by the Commonwealth Games. The same plan is also being executed at some of the famous monuments in the Capital like Humayun's Tomb and Qutub Minar," he said.

The project would also be carried out at the residences of chief ministers of different states.
"While the major stress is on power generation through solar cells, equal attention is being paid to other aspects like rain water harvesting, installing bio gas plants and using energy efficient equipment," the minister said.
While there is no readily available data on how much energy would be saved through the initiative, the officials said the project would make these buildings self-sufficient in power. "These are huge buildings and therefore their power and energy use is also massive. If they become self-sustainable, the power saved in the process can be diverted to other uses," a new and renewable energy ministry official told MiD DAY.u00a0u00a0

Energy guzzling towers

Minister of state for communications Sachin Pilot has stressed upon the need to conserve electricity and use solar panels to power mobile towers in the country. "There are 252,000 mobile towers in the country and they consume about two billion litres of fuel every year. We are planning to power these cell phone towers through solar energy. Apart from saving costly fuel it will also help in reducing carbon emissions," he said.

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