How Solar Energy Connected to Development in Rural India
Kumar, A. · EU PVSEC · 2016
Solar energy is being in various ways worldwide to provide access to electricity in off-grid, especially rural areas. The current works aims to study the impact of community-led solar energy in low-resource settings in remote villages in Sunderbans, on the Bay of Bengal coast of West Bengal in India. The study analyzes how solar lanterns which were deployed to replace kerosene lamps for education became helpful in more ways than the intended outcome. The model of community-led and maintained solar power helped in finding new livelihood and income sources by solar entrepreneurs, in charge of maintaining and renting out lanterns after charging them daily. Further these lanterns helped in small businesses in the area to operate with a safer light source than fire lamp. Thus the intervention became an example of holistic approach to development of the low-resource community. Studying the results of this project might help to inform other such projects being planned in similar low-resource contexts. Further, the metrics of how solar energy intervention is connected to development can help policy makers and government institute suitable programmes.