The union government on Tuesday launched a low-cost solar lamp that could be a boon to both the urban and rural population with no access to electricity.
While launching the newly developed solar lamp Surya Jyoti in New Delhi, the union minister for science and technology Harsh Vardhan said that the low-cost micro solar dome light would be a boon to the poor in rural India and tenement areas or slums of urban pockets where there is no access to electricity.
The minister said that the photo-voltaic integrated Surya Jyoti costs about Rs 1,200 and the non-photo-voltaic version costs around Rs 500. He also added that these figures are expected to drop further to Rs 900 and Rs 400 respectively once the production number rises and through future links with the subsidies under various schemes of the government.
According to the minister, 10 million households in the country could be the potential users of the device. He said, “If this technology is adopted in 10 million households only, it has the potential of saving 1,750 million units of energy. It would also lead to an emission reduction of about 12.5 million ton of CO2 equivalent, hence giving a fillip to the mission of ‘Clean India, Green India’. The manufacturing process, being labour-intensive, would also generate huge job opportunities in the economy.”
The union minister of state for science and technology Y S Choudhary said that this technology could help save fossil fuels as one unit of energy saved is equivalent to three units of energy generated. He urged the corporate sector to fulfill its role under the Corporate Social Responsibilities Schemes to scale up the manufacturing of Surya Jyoti dome lamps.
