LED bulbs to be future of street-lighting: Jain

Delhi government will be installing LED bulbs throughout the city, which it sees as the “future”, of street-lighting and will replace the existing non-LED ones, as part of its efforts to significantly reduce energy consumption of the Capital, power minister Satyendar Jain said on Thursday.

Jain said that around 60,000 MW of electricity is being used in the capital for lighting alone and pressed for efforts to reduce it by half. Stressing on sustainable living, he insisted on the need to focus on renewable sources of energy such as solar power, he added that a proper financing model needs to be developed which aims to bring down costs of such clean energy sources.

“We will make LED street lighting mandatory in Delhi, we will change those which have already been installed. I have told PWD to implement the same. If government creates a market then demand shall automatically go up and prices will come down.” 

Jain was speaking at an exhibition of LED lighting products and technologies at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. Cost of solar energy per unit was Rs 7 when the AAP government assumed office, which Jain said has come down to Rs 4.53 per unit. “Proper financing will bring it down even more... Quality will have to be assured as well, and LED is the future, there should be all innovations possible, India is an assembling hub now, so it should be a manufacturing hub as well,” the minister added. He underlined the need to keep efficient energy consumption in mind while constructing buildings. “Running cost should be very less. The more clean energy we use, the less pollution there will be. We will have to save power for sustainable living as well,” he said.