Going green costs customers pretty penny
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A CFL bulb
Courtesy of Sun Ladder
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By Rajnandini Ghosh
BANGALORE (Jan. 31)—It will be impossible for poor and middle-class people to shift to energy-efficient appliances as long as an energy-saving electric bulb costs almost 10 times the Rs. 12-15 that a regular bulb costs.
Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) use between one-fourth to one-third of the power of an equivalent incandescent lamp, while LED lamps last about 50 times longer than incandescent ones and use about one-tenth of the electricity.
The central government has formulated the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE), which is one of eight missions planned under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.
The NMEEE includes the Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT), scheme, a market-based mechanism to enhance energy efficiency for the so-called designated consumers (large, energy-intensive industries and facilities).
Another initiative is the Market Transformation for Energy Efficiency (MTEE), by which these large industries would be targeted to enable them to shift to energy-saving appliances.
Such products—LED bulbs and CFL tube lights, for example—would be made more affordable for big manufacturers. The government has even promised to provide subsidies when necessary.
But what about the common people who can’t even think of buying these appliances because market price is way beyond their reach?
Nafeesa Begum, a homemaker said: “I know it claims to guarantee a smaller electricity bill, but who has the money to spend Rs. 150 on one bulb? I don’t.”
And Nafeesa is not even a holder of a below-poverty-line card.
Nafeesa’s thought process is reflected in the sales figures of most electronic/electrical showrooms along Bangalore’s M.G. Road.
Raghu Jain, a bank teller said: “I have heard these CFL bulbs last much longer. But shelling out Rs. 200 for a bulb at one go is tough. We are service holders, you see.”
Jairam, an electrical goods shop owner in M.G. Road said: “My showroom is 40 years old. For the last three years I am selling energy-saving bulbs and tube lights. There are hardly any takers. Only the rich can afford to use energy-saving bulbs, tube lights and cookers.”
A salesperson at PAI Electronics showroom in Rajajeshwari Nagar said, “The energy-saving appliances are not for the poor. Those are for the wealthy.”
Ramprasad, assistant general manager of the state government-linked Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd. said: “You can’t have a win-win situation. These appliances can’t be given at throwaway prices. You have to consider the life expectancy of these bulbs, which is way more than ordinary bulbs.”
But in a country that has 37% of the population below poverty line, shouldn’t these energy-saving appliances be made available in the market at subsidized rates so that the poor can also afford it?
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