TERI (The Energy & Resources Institute, Delhi) has been promoting solar LED lamps in Indian rural areas/villages in order to replace the toxic & polluting kerosene lamps, currently used by many households. TERI has coordinated the supply of around 75,000 solar LED lights (until the first half of 2012) to various Indian villages, and a few villages in Africa. Each of these solar lanterns is expected to mitigate about 1.5 Tonnes of carbon over their life of ten years. Well then, you can imagine the scale of the positive impact created by this campaign, on our environment!
In villages/rural locations, the initial capital expenditure is a major hurdle. People might be willing to switch over from kerosene lamps to solar lanterns, but they may not be in a position to pay the capital expenditure required to buy the solar lamps/solar panels. Hence, this campaign does not follow the direct selling/decentralized energy generation model.
Instead, the organization supplies larger (capacity) solar panels, electrical charging infrastructure and solar lanterns to one entrepreneur in the village. This entrepreneur rents out the solar lanterns to users, on a daily basis. For the end users, the daily/monthly cost of renting the solar lamps works out to be almost similar to the amount spent on buying kerosene, for their existing lamps.
In addition to lighting, solar power can be used to provide additional services like cell phone charging, etc. In a few villages, a group of residents join together, buy solar panels and share the electricity generated among all their houses.
Solar energy is an excellent option for providing electricity to remote villages/rural areas because the cost of connecting all these places to the grid is very high or in some cases, impossible (due to their physical locations). But solar panels can be fixed anywhere and used to generate electricity during the day time (when the sun shines). This electricity can be stored in batteries and used in the night.
Innovative rural electrification/lighting campaigns like the one being coordinated by TERI sets an example on how people can empower themselves and bring electricity/non-polluting lighting to their villages. The success of such campaigns also depend on how well these systems are maintained and hence TERI coordinates to establish service centers/battery replacement points with trained technicians at appropriate locations.
You can also participate in this campaign. Visit their website to learn how!
