Decentralized Solar Power for Rural Electrification in India: A Review (original) (raw)
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Introduction to India's Energy and Proposed Rural Solar-PV Electrification
Proceedings of the 2nd …, 2011
India's energy outlook from fossil fuels sources, in particular in the sector of oil and gas, point out to a very high import dependence in the next twenty years. On the other hand, the prospect of obtaining energy from renewable energy sources has a positive outlook due to abundant availability of such resources in various parts of the country. Out of all these sustainable resources, solar, wind and biomass energy are some of the fields where past and present development have already witnessed major achievement. The above development has benefited certain areas of the country, while at the same time; it has helped, to a certain level, to develop the local economy. Solar energy in particular, from a recent governmental policy, has gained the momentum as one of the most important sources of energy for the country.
Solar Energy for Rural Electricity in India A Misplaced Emphasis
2014
decEMber 13, 2014 vol xlix no 50 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 60 I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer, Dilip R Ahuja, Sudhansu Kumar, Aditi Malhotra, Anasuya Gangopadhyay and V S Ramamurthy for their comments on earlier versions of the paper. I am also thankful to those who gave feedback to a presentation at the Fourth National Research Conference on Climate Change held at IIT Madras during 26-27 October 2013. I thank the South Asian Network for Development and Environment Economics as involvement in one of its projects motivated me to dwell on the subject of this paper.
Mini-Grids for Rural Electrification of Developing Countries, Green Energy and Technology, 2014
Conventional grid extension has been the predominant mode of electrification in India. However, solar photovoltaic technology has also been used for providing electricity access in remote, forested habitations and islands. Under the Remote Village Electrification Programme by the Government of India, around 12,000 villages and hamlets have been electrified using renewable energy. The state of Chhattisgarh in Central India has alone been able to electrify around 1,400 remote and forested villages through solar mini-grids. This chapter attempts to examine the development and operation of the solar mini-grid model for enhancing electricity access in India, with special focus on the state of Chhattisgarh. The work, based on extensive literature review, interview with key stakeholders and field visits to selected remote forested villages in the state of Chhattisgarh, shares the experiences and lessons of the solar mini-grid programme for rural electrification in the state by comprehensively analysing multiple dimensions of the programme such as coverage and trend, technical designs, institutional arrangements, financial mechanism and operation and maintenance aspects, which were key to the success of the solar mini-grids. We observe that robust institutional arrangement, strong policy support and an effective maintenance and an oversight mechanism have been the key contributing factors for the success of this initiative.
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In India, poor and marginalized communities face the dual challenges of low socioeconomic development and extreme vulnerability to climate change. Although there have been significant improvements in India’s rural household electrification, electricity availability for health centers, schools, and rural enterprises is still limited. Decentralized solar energy solutions are increasingly considered for bringing reliable electricity to community facilities, especially in climate vulnerable areas.
Importance of Solar Energy Technologies for Development of Rural Area in India
Solar energy is defined as the sun " s radiation that reaches the earth. It is the most readily available source of energy. The sun is the earth " s power station and the source of all energy on our planet. Solar energy is the energy force that sustains life on Earth for all plants, animals and people. It provides a compelling solution for all societies to meet their needs for clean, abundant sources of energy in the future. India is densely populated and has high solar insolation, an ideal combination for using solar power in India. Solar energy is widely used in India. This paper presents the solar energy current production in India from different stats and needs of solar energy for rural area development in India. The solar energy could supply all the present and future energy needs of the world. The most explored renewable energy technologies for power generation in India, namely, Solar pond, and Solar Photovoltaic systems need more sophistication for long-term benefits. This paper also summarizes the direct solar usage systems like Water heating system, Solar Drying, Solar Cooking and Solar Distillation. Solar energy can be tapped directly (e.g. PV); indirectly as with wind, biomass and hydropower; or as fossil Biomass fuels such as Coal and Natural Gas.
SOLAR POWER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF REMOTE/UN-ELECTRIFIED VILLAGES IN INDIA
Bodhi International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Science , 2018
Energy plays a significant role in sustaining economic activities and human development of the country. India is a world’s sixth biggest economy and fastest growing country. The energy demand in the country has been raising in accordance with the development human activities. In India, still around 25 per cent (304 million) of the population was living without access to electricity and 40 per cent (500 million) of the population is living without access to clean cooking energy fuel. The lack of access to electricity for people make struggles to break out of the cycle of poverty and for countries with low consumption of energy, the growth rate is declined as well as difficult for them to attain the sustainable development. The objectives of the study are 1) to know the remote un-electrified census villages and hamlets in India, 2) to examine the pattern of installation of off-grid solar photovoltaic devices and 3) to identify the impact on the economic development of the rural people. The study is entirely focused on secondary data. The findings of the study reveal that Rural Electrification Corporation has endorsed 12467 numbers of remote un-electrified villages and hamlets in 24 states in India. Of which Assam (2406) is the first place in un-electrified remote villages and Odisha (2116) is second place followed by Chhattisgarh (1621), Madhya Pradesh (972), Jharkhand (832). In the case of un-electrified hamlets, Jammu & Kashmir (631) is the first place and Tripura (460) is the second place followed by Uttar Pradesh (356), Karnataka (150) Haryana (149) out of 24 states. The trend of solar street lights and solar home lights are slightly fluctuating during the study period and the trend of the solar lantern is increasing. The study found that the solar photovoltaic system is definitely to improve the socio-economic conditions of the remote and un-electrified village peoples.
Rural electrification in India and feasibility of Photovoltaic Solar Home Systems
International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, 2011
Rural electrification is an integral component of poverty alleviation and rural growth of a nation. In India, electricity has not played effective role in the socio-economic growth of village. Government of India has ambitious target of providing electricity to all villages by 2008 and all rural households by 2012. Steps are initiated with Rural Electric Corporation, State Electricity Boards, Reforms in Power sector.
Solar energy programs for rural electrification: Experiences and lessons from South Asia
Energy for Sustainable Development 17, 2013
South Asia accounts for 37% of the world's population without access to electricity. Such a situation continues to exist despite several initiatives and policies to support rural electrification efforts by the respective country governments including use of renewable energy technologies. While conventional grid extension has been the predominant mode of electrification in the region, the countries have also extensively used solar photovoltaic (PV) technology for energy access. However, there have been implementation challenges including technical, financial, institutional, and governance barriers. This paper, based on extensive literature review and survey of selected programs, shares the experience and lessons of solar PV programs for rural electrification in South Asia – both at the regional and country levels – and also presents a comparative analysis to exploit the cross learning potential. The paper suggests that output focused approaches, financial innovations, bundling of projects for concentrating energy loads, adopting standard processes and metrics, developing necessary infrastructure, and building local technical capacity are a key to enhancing the effectiveness of the solar PV programs
Solar PV for Rural Electricity in India – A Misplaced Emphasis (2014)
2014
The urban-rural divide in developing countries is reinforced by unequal distribution of resources and amenities. Energy as a resource and electricity as an amenity are no exceptions. In this context, this paper questions the relevance of promoting solar photovoltaic systems for lighting in rural areas. It asserts that the basic electricity needs of rural areas are no different from urban ones, and there is a willingness to pay for reliable supply of electricity. Studies show that solar PV’s failure in villages is primarily due to glitches in maintenance, arising from lack of money, materials, and skilled human power. The answer would be to give these systems an urban focus, bringing in a more balanced use of solar energy for electrification.
A STUDY ON SOLAR ENERGY AND ITS IMPACT ON RURAL INDIA
isara solutions, 2016
Solar energy can be defined simply as the conversion of sunlight into useable energy. Solar energy is the primary renewable energy and only 16% renewable use in India (Dr. Pellegrino & Dr. Arsel, 2008). In the future, this energy system will contribute to the security of the energy supply and reduce co2 emissions (Yue, Chang-Dar Huang, and Guo-Rong). The majority of the population lives in rural areas, and the provision of electricity to these areas is difficult and costly. This paper explores the possibility of sustainable development through solar technology, which is environmentally sound technology. Solar technology is pollution control technology, clean technology, and electricity generates technology (Islan et al., 2010). In the energy crisis in rural areas, only 28% live in urban areas, and 72% live in rural areas. Only 40% of the rural area population covered electricity, and 60% of the population had no access to the modern form of soneeded electricity of solar technology for rural development (Germany, Shakts, 2010). Solar energy technologies convert the sun's light into usable electricity, and these technologies promote sustainable development. The advantage of solar technology is that solar power has no fuel requirement, solar modules have a long life, create new business, and these technologies are environmentally safe and less polluted (Pelece et al., 2010). Solar technology fulfills the need of people and provided electricity for domestic use. There are several barriers to using these technologies in rural areas like lack of awareness and high initial cost; pollution generates technology and lack of technological skill. The author first describes environment sound technology: solar energy technology, classification of solar energy technology, need of solar energy technology in rural areas, adoption, and barrier of solar energy technology, and focuses on solar energy technology use in the domestic sector.