Mumbai's gated community saves electricity worth Rs 2 lakh by using solar power

Raheja Eternity is a gated community of 230 families in the Kandivali area of Mumbai. The society has come to a decision to cut down their electricity expenses by employing sustainable and environment-friendly methods to conserve energy. Efficient rainwater harvesting, usage of LED bulbs, water treatment techniques and employing solar power are few such feathers in the society's cap.

More than Rs 35 lakh was collected by the residents to buy and install a rooftop solar system of 65 kilo watts on June 5, marking the World Environment Day. Much prior to this, normal type of lights present in all the common areas of the society were replaced by energy-efficient LED bulbs.

Vishal Gharat, a resident who is coordinating and facilitating alternate energy methods in the society, said in a chat with Hindustan Times,

"There are around 211 panels that generate around 260-280 units per day. But after we replaced all our society tube lights with around 650 LED bulbs, we have reduced our unit consumption substantially. Though the bulbs cost us around Rs 80,000, it was worth it."

SK Sahu, Chairman of Raheja Eternity Society, told India Today,

"We wanted to protect environment, so we planned to get into renewable energy. Our main aim was to convert tube lights to LED lights and to reduce C02 emission and also cut down maintenance bill which was expensive mostly due to the electricity. Earlier, we used to get bill of Rs 4 lakh, now we have managed to reduce it to Rs 1.30 lakh."

Apart from these facilities, the society also has a plant to treat waste water and water-saving nozzles that directly reduce water consumption by half. Rainwater harvesting is regularly employed and 20 mango saplings have already been planted in the lawns and the terrace of this twenty-story building. In future, two automatic composting machines will be put up to convert kitchen waste into compost in just a matter of three days. Sensor systems will be installed which will sense human movement and switch electric switches off accordingly. This sensor-system technique will amplify bulb life by almost nine times, as per the residents of the society.

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