Ashutosh College among solar-compliant campuses

KOLKATA: From next month, Ashutosh College’s monthly electricity bill will reduce by a third as the college has it will generate 20KW of electricity on its own through a solar facility on its roof. With its entry , Ashutosh is now the 12th college in Kolkata to set up a solar rooftop plant. In addition, there are around 50 schools in the city with rooftop solar facility. Inaugurating the facility at Ashutosh College, power minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said his department would continue to support solar initiatives in educational institutions and expected the movement to gain momentum through the the Aloshree programme, which was announced by the CM last year. Progress in the project has been ham pered due to the delay in release of funds by the ministry of new and renewable energy . The Aloshree project proposes to cover all state government offices, municipalities, corporations, panchayats, state-run public sector undertakings and other autonomous bodies of the state government. Altogether, 32 MW is to be added -10 MW each by WBPDCL, WBSEDCL and a school project (10 KW unit in 1,000 schools).
The West Bengal Green Development Corporation Ltd is also setting up 5KW units in 100 schools. Earlier, 10KW plants were set up in 100 schools.WBPDCL and WBREDA will also be funding the project in 200 other schools. Among colleges that have set up solar plants include St Xavier’s College, St Andrew’s College, Derozio College, Sammilani College, Jogesh Chandra Chowdhuri College and Muralidhar Girls College.

Times View
This is a very good initiative, worthy of emulation by other colleges.Besides generating so much of green power, having these initiatives at educational institutions serves another purpose: they sensitise students to the importance of clean energy.

Source:TOI