Resident welfare association pledges their rooftop for setting up solar energy
The fair through exciting and interactive activities informed participants about renewable energy and how the sun can power homes through the simple but powerful idea of solar roof tops. The fair had an informative photo exhibition, a street play, a musical performance lit up with solar energy and t-shirt painting and quiz for children. The community fair also included easy to use energy roof top audits which helped residents to calculate the cost benefits in pledging roof top space for solar.
“Delhi has more than 320 days of sunshine in a year and has a huge potential for solar energy that gives people the freedom to generate and use their own electricity as well as sell whatever extra is generated. But the Delhi government has paid no heed to this alternate source. In our recent report “Powering Ahead on Renewables: Leaders and Laggards”, [i] Delhi was amongst the worst states in terms of achieving their renewable energy targets. It is completely dependent on coal powered plants mostly in the neighbouring states.[ii] If it truly wants to become a sustainable city then it has to look at clean and sustainable sources of energy,” said Usha Saxena, public engagement campaigner, Greenpeace India.
The RE Fair was attended by the residents of Pocket B at Sukhdev Vihar. Speaking at the community fair, Anshu Garg, president, RWA Sukhdev Vihar said, “We are very excited about using the sun and our rooftops to solve Delhi’s energy crisis. We have pledged our rooftops for the solar energy revolution and will urge the government to promote grid interactive solar roof top energy instead of polluting and toxic waste to energy plants like the one in Okhla.”
For more details contact:
Shachi Chaturvedi, senor media officer, Greenpeace India, 981875007, 
Usha Saxena, public engagement campaigner, Greenpeace India, 9818649083, 
Sources:
[i]Greenpeace report Powering Ahead on Renewables: Leaders and Laggard https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-india-stateless/2018/05/powering-ahead-with-renewables.pdf
[ii] Over 75% of Delhi’s electricity comes from coal-based thermal power plants which are mostly situated in other states. Last year, 32 major thermal power plants, including five major power plants which supply power to Delhi, faced severe coal shortage due to rising cost both in domestic and international market, leading to deficit of 8000 MW of electricity generation. On the other side electricity generation from solar and wind energy stepped up.