The Solar Powered Cricket Stadium
The Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangaluru certainly has seen some energizing performances in its colourful history - think along the lines of the electricity generated by Chris Gayle's batting. But now the stadium hopes to quite literally produce its own power and eventually get off the grid. A 400 kilowatt solar power system has been installed on the roof of the stadium's eastern stands as part of the stadium's green drive.
Nobody can deny that India is a cricketing powerhouse. And now, we even have a cricket stadium that may soon quite literally provide power to the electricity grid. All thank to the Bengaluru sun.(All the Latest Cricket Updates)
The Chinnaswamy Stadium in in the city certainly has seen some energizing performances in its colourful history - think along the lines of the electricity generated by Chris Gayle's batting. But now the stadium hopes to quite literally produce its own power and eventually get off the grid. A 400 kilowatt solar power system has been installed on the roof of the stadium's eastern stands as part of the stadium's green drive.
Brijesh Patel, honorary secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association is certainly thinking green. He said, "We want to make Chinnaswamy Stadium a green stadium. We've started of with waste management. We're producing gas. We've also applied for the STP, Sewage Treatment Plant also because today tomorrow we are going to have the water shortage and we require a lot of water for the crowds. We've also done the rainwater harvesting and this is the next step now, we've done the solar. We've put a 400 KV solar on the rooftop and we're generating about 1800 units per day, about 6 lakhs units per year, we'll be generating. So, if this is successful, we plan on putting it on the western stand as well. A total of 1.3 megawatts is what we want to generate."
The powerful lights of the stadium that have lit up many an exciting encounter after dark will however continue to run on the generator. "At the moment, we're not able to use that power because it needs much more power and we are this runs on generators but as and when the technology improves, the LED becomes much more powerful, then I think we'll be able to use it," said Mr Patel.
Once the solar panels on the western stands are operational, the stadium hopes it will be producing excess power - enough to put some into the power grid.
Greener cricket - that's certainly something to cheer about.