India unveils energy standard for laptops

NEW DELHI: An information and communication technology industry initiative started almost one-and-a-half years back for energy efficiency has finally made the government announced energy efficiency label for laptops.

Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) on Wednesday announced BEE Star Label version 1 for laptops. The guidelines announced by BEE are based on United Sates Energy version 5 guidelines .

“US Star energy version 5 is the base for BEE standard announced om Wednesday,” told Ashwini Aggarwal, executive editor, Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology said “This had been long awaited launch. It is going to sidelines low quality products in the market, especially cheap and energy inefficient imported products,” added Aggarwal P Umashankar, secretary, Ministry of Power appreciated timing of issuing the BEE guidelines. “Laptops consume 0.5% of total power generated in the country. Their sales is growing at approximately 25%. Therefore I am glad that guidelines have come at the right time,” said Umashankar.

The guideline announced today will be extended to other categories of IT and Telecom products in a phased manner by BEE.