Rural Development
Role of Renewable Energy
services
BASIC NEEDS OF VILLAGES
Rural sanitation, Health,
Transport
Literacy,
Communication,
Housing
Rural Energy Services Scene
Energy is the means, the end being
development and improvement of quality
of life; the community has to take the
responsibility of planning & implementing
renewable energy projects.
Multinational (UN), national and state
agencies play a supporting role.
Electrification
About 100,000 out of 600,000 villages in
India are still not electrified through the
grid.
Of these, about 20,000-30,000 villages
cannot be electrified by conventional grid
extension.
Rural Energy Demand
Demand divided in four sectors:
Agriculture: water pumps
Residential: bulbs, tube lights, CFLs,
fans, coolers, refrigerators, TV,
firewood/cow-dung stove, LPG stove
Commercial: bulbs, tube lights, CFLs,
fans, coolers, refrigerators, TV, govt.
water pumps
Industrial: tube lights, motored
machines, pumps, fans, 5kW DG sets
Renewable Energy Resources
Solar radiation: for solar thermal, SPV
Wind: for electricity generation
Woody biomass: for electricity generation
and cooking gas through gasifiers / biogas
digesters
Cow dung: for cooking gas through bio-
gas digesters
Agro-residue: for gasifier / biogas
digesters
What can we analyze for our typical
model Panchayat?
Business-as-usual scenario
Energy efficiency scenario
Renewable energy scenario
Subsidized renewable energy scenario
Decentralized power generation scenario
Case Studies
(1) Bioenergy systems
(2) Solar PV Lighting
in rural India
(3) Information &
communication Technology
Rural Transformation
Challenge is how to transform the rural economy and
improve the quality of employment and levels of
living.
Reforms in three areas:
(1) Agriculture
(2) Rural non-farm
(3) Poverty Alleviation programmes and social sector.
Agriculture :
Three pronged strategy
(a) Developing agro based trade (domestic and
external) and agricultural processing to encourage
farmers and private sector
(b) Promoting institutions (land, water, marketing i.e.
contract farming)
(c) Infrastructure (public and private investment),
agricultural research) by stakeholder participation.
Rural non-farm sector:
On industry, strengthening infrastructure
in rural areas (power, water, telecom,
transport )
* Good governance by cutting down
delays in clearances and reducing
corruption (difficult!) to attract domestic
investment and FDI
Poverty Alleviation programmes
and
social sector:
In the rural areas, govt. has many
anti-poverty programmes. The
impact on poverty and rural
development of NREGA is positive.
Increasing concern towards efficiency
and effectiveness as government
spends considerable amount of
money.
Biomass Energy for Rural India
United Nations Development Programme
Rural Development and Panchayati
Raj Department, Government of
Karnataka
Case Study 1
Tumkur District
2007
Case Study 1: 28 villages in Karnataka: developing
and demonstrating a bioenergy package
5 small gasifier systems are operational
and provide energy for lighting and
irrigation.
1 gasifier-based power plant of 500 kW
capacity is supplying clean energy to 4
villages as well as selling excess power to
Bangalore Electric Supply Company.
Plantations supported on 2933.44 ha of
land that now provide fuel for gasifier
systems thereby increasing the income of
local people.
Case Study 1
The Government of Karnataka and the
Koratagere Panchayat established the first
ever formal agreement between a power
utility and a Panchayat to sell electricity.
51 community biogas plants installed,
enabling 175 households to light their
homes and cook on cleaner fuel.
70 Self-help Groups (SHGs) have been
formed to establish decentralized
nurseries for biomass plantations
Case Study 1
(these SHGs have a current revolving fund
of approximately Rs 2 crore which is
utilized for the benefit of SHG members)
Noticing the success of Biomass Energy
for Rural India (BERI) model, at least two
private companies have already shown
interest in setting up similar biomass
gasifier power generating systems in two
other clusters within the project.
Biogas plant in Karnataka producing
energy
Looking to the Future
Work on the second biomass gasifier power plant
of 500 kW capacity has been initiated
The success of project would lead to installations
of more gasifier based power generating units
with public-private partnerships. This would
increase local income generating avenues,
improve local power conditions, and the
Government and Utility would reduce its
overhead costs related to metering, billing and
collection – a win-win situation for all
stakeholders.
Solar PV home systems:
clean, eco-friendly option
for rural lighting
Solar energy systems will play
an increasingly large role in the
rural energy sector in India.
Reference:
MONITORING AND EVALUATION OF
SOLAR HOME SYSTEMS
Experiences with applications of solar PV for households in
developing countries F.D.J. Nieuwenhout, A. van Dijk,
V.A.P. van Dijk, D. Hirsch, P.E. Lasschuit, G. van Roekel, H.
Arriaza, M. Hankins, B.D. Sharma, H. Wad
ANNEX 4. EXPERIENCES IN INDIA
Dr. B.D. Sharma
3778 Netaji Subhash Marg
New Delhi 110 002, India
Electrification of villages: potential
for solar PV power
The solar systems are more economical
than the grid extensions for villages,
which are more than 3 km away from the
grid.
Solar lanterns and solar home systems
have found wide acceptance as clean, eco-
friendly option for lighting when well-
planned repair and maintenance services
along with improved availability of reliable
products are assured by service providers.
Potential for the commercialization
of several PV products in rural areas
There is a positive willingness to acquire
solar systems even with full down
payment. There is a felt need for simple
financing mechanisms to help persons
willing to acquire these systems on
instalment basis. With reduction in costs
of PV, there is bound to be substantial
growth in the market.
Case Study: SWRC (Social work research
council) Ladakh _ Train users to Maintain
1. No electronic engineer or anyone holding a
formal professional degree would be involved.
Barefoot solar engineers would be trained from
the village to do the job.
2. The barefoot solar engineers would be from
the village, not from any nearby town or city,
because the investment in training should not be
lost. They should have roots in the village and
want to go back and stay there.
3. The barefoot solar engineers should have the
minimum of educational qualifications. If they
were semiliterate or even illiterate it did not
matter. If it took longer to train them that did not
matter either.
The training covered:
How to install the solar panel on the roof of the
house;
How to carry out the entire wiring of the house
and the fixing of the solar tube lights at the
agreed location in the house;
How to fabricate and solder inverters & charge
controllers in primitive rural conditions;
How to carry out repairs and change defective
parts in the village itself ; and
How to in turn become a trainer and a leader in
the villages without depending on expertise
from outside.
The lessons learnt in the last eight years
in Ladakh can be summarized:
Any villager, literate or illiterate, can be
trained to do the job.
Any remote village can easily be made self
sufficient in solar power, however poor the
community may be.
The community must be involved in the
selection of the barefoot solar engineer; in
transportation of the panels to the village
and in the installation in their own houses-
only then they will pay willingly.
The lessons learnt in the last eight years
in Ladakh can be summarized:
The rural community must accept only
that technology that does not deprive
them of jobs and does not decrease
dependency.
The demystification of technology is a
process that cannot be rushed. It must
move with the pace at which the
community moves, slowly, carrying every
one along.
Solar cooking system for
apartments developed
Saturday, Jan 13, 2007
One can use this steam-based system to
supplement the conventional fuel-based
cooking. This will reduce the pressure on
demand for LPG and result in savings for
households
Karnataka Renewable Energy
Development Ltd. (KREDL)
Solar-powered steam-based cooking system that
suits apartments
The system comprises parabolic-shaped
reflectors, which focus the sun's rays on a
particular point on an aluminium pipe through
which water is made to pass through. The water
heats and generates steam that passes through
another pipe to be used for cooking purpose.
In the case of apartments, the steam pipe could
be connected to the kitchens of individual flats,
Dr. Shivalingaiah says. The entire system can be
located on the roof.
Initial Installation Cost
It costs about Rs. 13.50 lakh to install the
system_ up to 500 meals can be cooked
at a time.
Centre extends a subsidy of 50 per cent
for charitable institutions, 35 per cent for
others.
The main attraction of this cooking mode
is that one can recover the investment
made on the system in two to three years.
Can be used for mid-day meal scheme...
The life span of this system is estimated
at about 10 years. After that an
investment of about 25 per cent of the
project cost has to be made to replace the
reflectors.
The KREDL is ready to offer technical
know-how if the Primary and Secondary
Education Department brings before it a
proposal to use this system for its mid-day
meal scheme, Dr. Shivalingaiah says.
For details, call 080-22282221
village Internet kiosk
Rural magic:
True stories of ICT benefiting villagers.
Information and Communication at right
time
is
A beneficial service
and hence is a good business
True stories of ICT benefiting villagers
Sixty-year-old Palaniammal, a native of
Melur (a small town close to Madurai in
Tamil Nadu) had been complaining of
blurred vision for sometime.
A chance encounter with the village
Internet kiosk operator proved to be a
boon in disguise.
The operator’s solution was simple –
Palaniammal was taken to the kiosk,
where four photographs of her eyes were
taken with a web camera.
.... ICT benefiting village
These photographs were e-mailed to
Aravind Eye Care Hospital in
Madurai.
It did not take the doctors long to
deduce that Palaniammal was
suffering from cataract.
They mailed back their feedback and
within days her vision was restored.
.... ICT benefiting villagers
•The farmers of T Ulagapichampatti were in a
dilemma. Their okra produce was turning
yellow.
•A videoconferencing between the village
farmer and agriculture specialists, in the city,
was set up.
•The leaves and the produce of the damaged
crop were shown through the web-cam, the
kind and amount of fertilizers added were also
discussed.
•The experts diagnosed it to be yellow mosaic.
Apt treatment was administered and the
farmers prevented a loss of US$2,800.
.... ICT benefiting villagers
• It would be interesting to note that neither
party had to trudge across to the nearby
town or city to get their problem solved.
• That not only saved time and energy but
also was monetarily a much better option.
• These are just two examples of a silent
revolution brewing in some Indian villages
– plain, simple ‘access to information via
the Internet’.
n-Logue provides technical training to them, thus
enabling the young entrepreneur to start the
business.
The kiosk operator (KO), is typically a
young villager with a basic 12th standard
educational qualification. Moreover, it is
desired that they posses the ability to
manage and operate an Internet business.
The KO provides premises for the
business. The expenses incurred by the
KO, eventually, are primarily on account
of Internet usage. The revenue generated,
on the other hand, is on account of
Internet-based services sold to the
villagers.
