Dubai: Dubai Municipality has allocated 100,000 lamps from Dubai Lamp free of charge to housing projects as part of its Year of Giving initiatives, the civic body announced on Tuesday.
The move is part of the municipality’s community responsibility, serving the nation and contributing to the development process, Ahmad Saeed Al Badwawi, director of Applied Sustainability and Renewable Energy Department, said in a press release.
He said the municipality is launching its latest innovations in reducing energy consumption and reducing carbon emissions by distributing these lamps to the beneficiaries of housing projects as part of its corporate social responsibility.
“The savings that will be achieved from the initiative of distributing 100,000 lamps in the housing projects will be Dh4 million during the year, and 10.7 million kWh of energy per year in addition to 6,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions,” said Al Badwawi.
“The lamps will be provided and distributed over the coming years free of charge for the benefit of the local community. The initiative includes studying the lighting needs in residential areas and replacement of the currently available four types of old lamps, in coordination with the donor organisation.”
Dubai Lamp represents a unique innovation in terms of environment-friendly specifications, he said. “This lamp does not contain mercury and heavy toxins, which makes it safe for household uses. It also does not produce ultraviolet rays, or generate heat and thus saves cooling comfort in the lighted rooms and reduce the electric load on the air-conditioning.”
He said the Dubai Plan 2030 aims to reduce the non-clean energy by 30 per cent, equivalent to 1,000GW per year and carbon emissions by 16 per cent by 2021 and protecting the environment using clean energy in the emirate. “Dubai Lamp serves this strategy by reducing energy consumption by 90 per cent and will reduce an amount of 640 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide emissions until 2021,” said Al Badwawi.
He explained that Dubai Municipality’s approach to sustainability in the design and construction of houses, villas and industrial facilities is focused on the need to use Dubai Lamp in the next phase and linking it to building licences and designs of the buildings in the emirate, and technical and architectural studies are now focusing on the importance of using Dubai Lamp to provide clean energy.
Al Badwawi said the main feature of the lamp is that it comes in three types: 1, 2 and 3 watt bulbs instead of 20-60 watts, which consume high energy for lighting.
“The lamp works more efficiently and it will reduce energy consumption according to the available size. The cost of the lamp is competitive and the lamps are currently available in the market. The average lifespan of the lamp is up to 25 years,” he added.
Al Badwawi stressed that Dubai Lamp, a joint venture of the municipality and Philips Lighting, is one of the Dubai Future Accelerators projects. “The initiative aims to reduce energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions and is a global model of innovation and creativity in energy and lighting,” he said.
