1 lakh students from 100 schools across India will assemble solar lamps on October 2 on the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and diamond jubilee of IIT Bombay. This largest initiative could qualify for a Guinness World Record entry.
On October 2, under the IIT-B’s Solar Urja through Localisation for Sustainability (SoULS) program, 2,5000 students or student solar ambassadors will collect at IIT-B to assemble solar lamps to help promote solar energy for sustainable future of earth.
The 100,000 students in 100 schools will assemble solar lamps to take them back home so that they can fulfill their own study light needs. As part of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Program, the solar lamp kit of Rs 500 each will be provided to every student for Rs 100 each.
Chetan Singh Solanki of IIT-B’s Department of Energy Science & Engineering said, “amidst growing challenges of climate change and rising global temperatures, the world has to move towards adopting 100 per cent renewable energies to limit the the average increase in global temperature by 2 degrees Celsius.”
India has pledged to install 100GW of renewable energy by 2022 in accordance with India’s pledge to the Paris Climate Agreement of reducing carbon emission by 30-35 percent of 2005 levels.
Under the SoULS program, the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti has included solar lamp installation as part of its curriculum.
The objective of October 2 program is to encourage all education boards like CBSE and State Education Boards to include hands-on training of solar lamps for all students in their curricula. A webite, www.solarstudents.org has been launched by ITT-B for students to take part in the program.
