Green energy to power houseboats now

ALAPPUZHA: Houseboat cruise is one of the mainstays of Kerala Tourism. But the slow-chugging vessels are also blamed for damaging the Vembanad Lake ecosystem for waste dumping and carbon emissions. Things are about to change now. Houseboats are gradually beginning to embrace solar power, thus contributing to a cleaner environment. A project was launched recently to install solar panels on houseboats. Being implemented jointly by the Energy Management Centre (EMC) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the aegis of the National Mission on Power Electronics Technology, it aims to replace diesel/petrol generators with solar panels to power various devices, from lighting to air-conditioners, in vessels in the initial phase.