Surat pins hopes on smart street lights to save energy

SURAT: Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) plans to install occupancy sensors, smart street lights and solar trees in gardens and other places to save and generate green energy. A pilot project will be launched soon.
Civic officials of Rander zone have installed 11 smart street light poles on way to Gaurav Path from While Pearl Building. These poles work as per the density of traffic on road.If traffic density is thin in late night hours, the illumination level will reduce.
Kirit Suvarnakar, in-charge executive engineer, SMC, said, “At present, after midnight we switch off lights or reduce lighting on certain roads to save energy. Smart street lights will help us save energy in a big way.”
The occupancy sensors will also reduce energy consumption. Once these sensors are fitted in the rooms, if they are unoccupied, lights, fans and air-conditioners will stop functioning.
The concept of solar tree in gardens will go a long way in saving energy too. Solar trees are complementary to rooftop solar systems. They will produce electricity, which can be used for various purposes, particularly for charging batteries.
SMC will also experiment with standalone solar light poles fitted to a rechargeable battery. When a generator is fitted to a gym equipment, it will produce electricity should someone use it. Under smart city regime, our aim is to produce clean green energy, Suvarnakar added.