Companies oppose electricity-saving methods as they may hit revenue

In an unusual move, power utilities in the state expressed their unwillingness to take up power saving methods. They reasoned that the power-saving methods would adversely affect their incomes.

Still strong: A lamppost containing two 11-watt compact fluorescent lamps, at Kodimangalam village of Nagaamukundankudi panchayat in Sivaganga district in 2004, is functioning smoothly.

MADURAI: The

A village of 105 lit up households. But how to make renewable energy sustainable? A 30-km drive from Chhattisgarh

energy-starved Sri Lanka has levied a tax on incandescent bulbs of over 40 watts and soon plans to ban the import and manufacture of bulbs of 75 watts and above. The target is to completely ban the se bulb by 2010. Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (sea) hopes the move will help promote energy efficient compact fluorescent (cfl) bulbs.

Archana Srivastava | TNN

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government's

Aldo DeRubeis bought compact fluorescent bulbs on Monday at the Home Depot in New Rochelle, N.Y. Sales of compact fluorescents climbed to 75 million last year for the retailer. Recycling them is about to get easier. Home Depot, the nation's second-largest retailer, will announce on Tuesday that it will take back old compact fluorescents in all 1,973 of its stores in the United States, creating the nation's most widespread recycling program for the bulbs.

With creating awareness of environment among people, the Delhi Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, today exhorted them to come forward to preserve and conserve environment of the earth planet. She further exhorted them to make rational use of natural resources to ensure better future. She said that her government would introduce water-harvesting scheme in 205 schools in the Capital for which an amount of Rs 40 crore has been earmarked.

A few months away from elections and hurtling towards the Commonwealth games deadline of 2010, the Delhi government has in its 2008-09 Budget made an unprecedented 41% hike in the allocation for the t

For promoting usage of energy saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in the country, leading lamp manufacturer Osram will distribute more than 2 million CFL units to poor families in Mahrashtra, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. A unit of CFL will cost around Rs 10- 15 while actual cost of the unit is around Rs 300. Osram has already carried out the ground works for the project, which is expected launched over the next few weeks. "We have signed MoUs with respective state electricity boards and the project would be financed through carbon credit generated through the clean development mechanism (CDM) under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC),' Gagan Mehra, managing director of Osram India told FE. However the company is yet to decide volume of carbon credit needed for the implementation of the project. Osram model for CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto protocol for reducing CO2 emission in the lighting industry. The company in collaboration with state electricity boards will distribute special CFL bulbs with a longevity of 15 thousands hours amongst the poorer section of the population. "We have identified as present districts such as Visakhapatanam in Andhra Pradesh, Sonepat and Yamuna Nagar in Haryana and Pune in Maharashtra for distribution of CFL units and gradually the programme would include other districts in the state,' Mehra said. Osram would be importing most of the components of the CFLs to be distributed in the three states and it would be assembled at the Sonepat plant of the company. "As the project would be in operation for seven to 10 years in three states, after two years of implementation, we plan to manufacturer the CFLs at our plant,' Mehra said. Mehra admitting that despite the low energy consumption by CFLs, the disposal of these bulbs has been a key issue. "All the manufacturers of CFLs are working out a strategy for proper disposals of these bulbs with the Electricity Lamp and Components Manufacturers Association of India (ELCOMA),' he said.