Energy & Fuel

To provide the basic energy needs of people in rural areas through renewables in a cost effective and environment friendly manner

 

Electricity and Cooking Fuel Problems

Around seventy percent of India’s residents live outside major cities. Rural poor cannot afford the costs related to the initial electricity connection, house wiring and appliances to benefit from electricity. It is very common that utilities routinely disconnect a feeder connecting to low paying rural and agricultural loads during peak periods forcing even few paying consumers to get electricity only during off peak periods.

Similar problems lie with the cooking needs of the people in villages. Cow dung and low cost wood are widely used as cooking fuel. But the fire and smoke from cow dung create health hazards and indiscriminate cutting of trees for firewood also creates environmental problems. In most of the households it was seen that school going kids spend their time collecting fuel wood to help their mothers and as a result drop from going to school.

A small girl at Work Additionally due to subsidization of kerosene by the Government some people use kerosene lamps for lighting and kerosene stove for cooking adding to the overall environmental health problem.   ADIRE's Solution Solar Power Demonstration of solar power & Few of the Solar Lantern owners To start with one solar light was donated to a village temple and one solar home system was installed for demonstration purpose. Later twenty more solar lanterns were provided to poor families with school going girl children. In order to lessen the burden of household work like collecting fuel for cooking, cleaning kerosene lamps etc. so that of girls and encourage them to go to school, priority was given to those families with school going girl children. Solar lanterns that were introduced were around INR 3500 per lantern. Rural people normally do not have so much cash at one point to spare. So these were given to people through a microfinancing credit. People had the flexibility to payback in monthly installments for five years either in cash or through labor for village developmental work. Monthly installment was calculated based on the existing average monthly spending per household in subsidized kerosene lamps.   A Solar Cooker Solar lantern safe for kids One Solar Lighting System supporting two lights and one fan was installed in the local primary school which had been running without electricity. Using this solar lights evening reinforcement classes are conducted free by ADIRE staff for the village kids.   The elementary school AdiVidya Mandir runs completely on solar power and uses fans, lights, laptops and projectors using solar.   One solar lantern on a normal sunny day gives light for 4-5 hours when charged fully during the day. Performance of solar systems was closely monitored and two local youth were trained on solar light maintenance. Only 10% of the people now have solar lights. ADIRE plans to provide 40% more in the year 2006. After the basic need of lighting is met ADIRE would expand into providing other solar products like solar fans, Solar radios, Solar pumps etc. Solar powered Laptop with wireless internet connectivity available free to villagers for open information access and training Solar Lantern charging & Maintenance managed by local technician     LED based Lights                          LED lights being used by the local people for festivals and other ceremonies   Bio Power Regarding the cooking needs, two individual biogas plants were locally constructed for two households. fifteen small biogas plants was planned to be set-up by December 2007 along with a large biogas digester for a village cafeteria. This community biogas plant is a part of women bio cooperative program and was completed in Mar 07 and is now being used to supply fuel for AdiVidya Mandir school kitchen. A small village cafe is also now being constructed near this digeter which is planned to start by Sept 07. The possibility of making a solar cooker to meet the needs of a community kitchen also is in the pipeline. Its effectiveness for rural household cooking is currently being tried out A 6 cubic ft biogas digestor - part of women biocooperative program supplying fuel for village cafe and AdiVidya elementary school meal preparation. some individual family based 1 cubic ft bigas digestor (right)      To empower and encourage people to use biogas, around 15 women have taken loan for purchasing cows. They are supposed to earn by selling milk or milk products and use the manure for biogas cooking. In order to encourage people to use biogas as cooking fuel a Bio co-operative has been formed in August 2006 among few of the women who are being sponsored by SHAMA WELL (Women Empowered through Living Loan) program. Home   Our People    Health     Learning     Production    Events   Contact Us