Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to set up multi-purpose
hybrid street lights, powered by renewable energy. The mechanism was
proposed by a private company specialising in renewable energy related
products.
A single unit of these lights can accommodate
surveillance cameras and public address system. The pole of these street
lights called RENLYS can harness both wind and solar energy and do not
require solar panels as the pole will act as solar panel.
“These
poles will tap solar energy and store the excess power in batteries or
supply it back to the grid,” said BMC Commissioner Sanjib Mishra.
Earlier,
BMC had approved another proposal in collaboration with Odisha
Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA) to set up solar powered
street lights in two stretches in the city: from OUAT Square to Delta
Square and AG Square to Acharya Vihar.
The OREDA proposal assured
30 per cent energy efficiency and a break even in the investment after
30 years. But BMC faced difficulty in getting 600 square metres of land
adjacent to the road for setting up the solar panels, said Mishra.
In
the present proposal, the company has assured a break even in the
investment only one year after establishment of the street lights. There
is also no need to acquire land for solar panels. Since these lights
can accommodate surveillance cameras, they will be useful for the
Traffic Department too.
The cost of covering one-kilometre stretch
with the hybrid street lights is estimated to be ` 1.6 crore. “Cost of
construction will be high, but maintenance cost and electricity charges
will not be high as the company has assured us a guarantee of 30 years,”
said Mishra.
Presently, BMC spends around ` six crore on
maintenance and around ` nine crore towards electricity bill of street
lights every year.
