Chennai: Ever wondered that lighthouses can cause greenhouse effect adding to environment pollution? They may be beacons of light to seafarers and spots tourists like to visit, but in operating on conventional sources of energy, lighthouses do add to environmental pollution.
Most lighthouses operate on electricity with diesel generators as a backup which consume fossil fuel and emit a high amount of carbon dioxide (CO2)
causing increased greenhouse effect and air pollution.
Realising the peril and in an effort aimed at reducing the level of Co2 emission, the Union Shipping Ministry has commenced the process of harnessing solar energy to power all the lighthouses dotting the country’s 7,517-km coastline. A total of 176 lighthouses of 193 maintained by the Directorate General of Lighthouse & Lightships (DGLL) under the Union Shipping Ministry, have been fully solarised.
The Directorate plans to complete solarisation of all the lighthouses by this December end. The move will help to generate approximately 1.5 MWh energy, which will amount to reducing greenhouses gases to about 6,000 kg per day. Lighthouses operating on a reliable, resilient and renewable energy system would help reduce global warming.
Most lighthouses are a legacy left by the British in India and Chennai got its first lighthouse in 1796. It was established atop the Fort Museum, then known as Exchange Building. About 12 lamps fuelled by coconut oil at this lighthouse situated 99 feet above sea level, guided the sailors.
It became defunct when the British government established a 120-foot high lighthouse on the premises of the Madras HC and it was later replaced with another structure 175 feet above sea level in 1894 in the High Court and the present lighhouse, which is the fourth in the city, is at the Marina beach near the Gandhi statue.
