Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal, exhorted people to spread awareness about energy conservation and help improve environmental equilibrium at a function celebrate the 26th National Energy Conservation Day 2016 organised by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE).
During the function, the Minister gave away National Energy Conservation Awards - 2016 to industrial units and other establishments, and National Energy Conservation Painting Competition Prizes to students.
NTPC has already given the in-principle clearance to replace around 11,000 MW of its old, inefficient thermal power plants. The plants would be replaced in about five years, with an investment of around Rs. 50,000 crores, he added.
Over 16,000 households in about 800 inaccessible villages in India which lack grid connectivity. The Ministry would be providing, to each such household, a 300 KW Solar panel, 8-hour battery backup, 5 LED bulbs, an energy efficient ceiling fan and a solar power based mobile phone charging socket, all free of cost under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.
Informing about the progress of the UJALA LED scheme, the Shri Goyal said that according to the latest figures from UJALA dashboard, over 18.38 crore
LED bulbs have been distributed by EESL and another 25 crore by private sector companies.
This drive has witnessed a massive reduction of around 88% in LED prices in just 20 months, which led to an annual saving of around Rs. 10,000 crores for the consumers. The savings would scale up to Rs. 40,000 crores in the next 3 years.
Gujarat has become the first state in the country to replace all street lights with LED bulbs and this has been.
