NEW DELHI: In a bid to increase energy savings by commercial buildings, minister of power, coal, mines and new & renewable energy Piyush Goyal on Monday launched the new Energy Conservation Building code (ECBC) 2017.
Stressing on the importance of not providing subsidies in order to get better results and low cost financing, Goyal said, “Whenever we have removed subsidies and government intervention, we have got much better results. Though it is a state subject to give incentives I am not for it as we do not need to give them.”
The ECBC adoption for new commercial building construction is estimated to achieve 50 per cent reduction in energy use by 2030, according to Goyal.The savings estimated by ECBC 2017 will be equivalent to the annual avoided expenditure of Rs 35,000 crore and 250 million tonnes of CO2 reduction.
“I have recommended that all new buildings and offices in the future to be Super ECBC and Net Zero Energy Buildings. We should also have a code for both residential and commercial buildings this calendar year,” Goyal said at the launch Developed jointly by the ministry of power and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), along with technical support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), ECBC 2017 prescribes the energy performance standards for new commercial buildings to be constructed across India.