Spotlight

New Delhi, 4 May 2007

SCHOOL ADOPTS SOLAR POWER

NEW DELHI, May 5 (INFA): The future certainly looks bright for students from the Rajakiya Uchch Prathmik Vidyalaya in Dhund village in Rajasthan. Solar panels erected in the school premises ensure that computers installed as part of the Computer-aided Learning Programme (CALP), work without any disruption.

In a State where the power situation is very grim, particularly in rural areas, the CALP under the Rajasthan Education Initiative (REI) was facing serious power shortages. Following complaints from school authorities and big corporates who are partners in REI and have set up computer labs in schools, the State Education Department decided to run the computers on solar power. The pilot project launched in the school has met with considerable success with the panels generating enough power to run three computers for four hours each.

The Education Department is now set to install similar panels across 514 schools in all 32 districts of the State by the end of February this year. The cost incurred is met by funds provided under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan launched by the Central Government.

The contribution of renewable energy in the country’s power grid is growing at a healthy pace and is now 7.5 per cent of the total grid power capacity. This was revealed by a year-end review of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India.

Grid-connected power generation through renewable sources of energy touched 9100 MW during 2006, with wind alone contributing 6070 MW. India maintained its 4^th position in the world after Germany, Spain and the US, in wind power installation capacity.

Fortyfive MW of small hydropower projects have been commissioned during 2006 making a cumulative achievement of 1850 MW.

Grid-interactive biomass and bagasse co-generation power projects made a cumulative contribution of 1038 MW by the end of 2006. According to the report, about 2240 remote villages have so far been provided electricity through renewable energy sources.---INFA

TICKETS FOR BEIJING OLYMPIAD-2008

NEW DELHI, May 5 (INFA): Tickets for next year’s Olympic Games in China are now in sale. The Beijing Organising Committee for the Games (BOCOG) has put on sale more than seven million tickets, twentyfive per cent of which will be sold to the overseas public.

For overseas sales, the process will be determined in each country and territory by its National Olympic Committee, that is the Indian Olympic Association (IAO) in India and its agents.

The tickets are low-priced, affordable by the common man. The BOCOG has announced that the ticket pricing is in keeping with its efforts to make the Games accessible to the broadest spectrum of people. ---INFA