Lighting Bundelkhand with Solar

Bundelkhand is likely to become the solar hub of Uttar Pradesh with the initiative of the state government that plans to install several solar plants in the region by the end of 2016. All of these plants will be built on barren lands to ensure that there is no agricultural loss to the farmers and the people in general. Such realization has dawned upon on the governments because of failure of conventional sources of energy, which have not been able to provide uninterrupted power to the people at reasonable cost. Thermal and Hydro Energy projects which are centralized methods of power distribution ensures that the control remains in the hands of those providing electricity, more so because it has been government controlled. The state energy providers create financial leaks in the system by serving their own interests, thus haulting the progress of the nation. Such corruption does not allow cheap and regular supply of electricity to people holding the communities to ransom. Politicians have even threatened the public of cutting power supplies if they lose votes in elections.

In such a situation, there was a desperate need for decentralized energy source that brings backs the control in the hands of people and ensures cheap and regular source of electricity. Solar power was the only option that was not only reasonable in the long term but was also a clean technology causing no or minimal environmental damage unlike the conventional sources of energy such as Coal and Hydro Power Dams. Coal is a major source of air pollution that is responsible for choking not only the coalmine workers but also the cities surrounding the thermal power plants; hydropower dams on the other hand cause severe environmental losses and mass emigrations. In almost all such points, solar energy wins over the conventional sources even though it has its own limitations, one of which is the dependence on sunlight, which is not available 24 hours of the day. It is imperative that the private sector participates in social and environmental development. This is already happening in form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects that the government and law courts have now enforced as a law to ensure that even irresponsible corporations understand their social and ethical responsibilities towards the society and its environment. There are however many corporations that invest hugely in CSR projects to compensate for the environmental damage caused by their operations.

Social Efforts of the Cola Giant

Coca Cola foundation has invested in solar energy projects in the villages of Bundelkhand to ensure social and economic upliftment of the village communities. The international corporation has given the responsibility of community engagement to TARA, a social enterprise of the Development Alternatives group, which has successfully completed many such CSR projects in the past few decades. TARA specializes in implementation of CSR projects in the northern and eastern part of the country where it has its maximum hold. The initiative by Coca Cola Foundation and TARA is playing its role in the solar revolution of Bundelkhand, where these two business entities are installing Solar Power plants with help of energy companies who take care of the technical installations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cM3AOATE3Q

Film on Solar Energy Projects in Bundelkhand

Boost to Agriculture

Agriculture is the occupation that drives the rural economy and thus it was important to solve the challenges faced by the farmers. Solar Irrigation pumps was the answer to the problems posed by the expensive diesel pumps such as noise, air pollution, high maintenance and dependency on an expensive fuel that is not only irregular in supply but is also used as black market product. A switch over from the conventional technology to a cleaner technology brought a smile to the face of the farmers because now they didn’t have to run and struggle for diesel every other day, which now allows them to make optimal use of their available time. It’s also easy on their pocket because they did not have to spend on the installation of solar panels and only get a return from them. A technology can only be called environmentally sustainable if it benefits the people using it and the environment surrounding them. Just serving the environment would not be good enough as human resource is the most of important resource of the nature. “I sow around 10 sacks of wheat on my land and I used to spend thousands on diesel, which are completely saved now”, says a farmer living in a remote village of Bundelkhand. He believes that other farmers should also adopt this technology to have sustainable irrigation.

Lighting up the Villages

Apart from its benefits in irrigation and agriculture, the solar technology with the help of another sustainable technology i.e. the LED (Light Emitting Diodes) is bringing the revolution to their homes. The kerosene lanterns have been replaced with LED bulbs, which ensure that kerosene smoke does not darken the houses; also the LED bulbs (because of their heat sink) doe not dissipate heat like the kerosene lamp thus maintaining the room temperature. Another advantage of the LED bulbs is that it consumes less electricity for the same amount of light thus wining over the incandescent bulb or even the CFLs. “The walls and ceilings remain clean and the children can also now study under the LED light even at night”, says a housewife from the village.

“Villagers pay Rs 120 per household every month to the committee, which is formed by the TARA team that manages these finances”, says the social worker from TARA. The team has also opened bank accounts for the committee where the collection is deposited every month. The purpose of this revenue model is to provide cheap and sustainable power to the community, while making a committee consisting of the village members only, making the process self-reliant and self-sufficient.

Statistics speak a lot about the work that has been done by the enterprise with the cooperation of the community members.

• 450 households and 2 schools have been electrified in 2 years and 4 villages have already been lit up in the Bundelkhand region.

• Six solar pumps have been installed in these villages

• 3500 individuals have already been impacted by the intervention

The idea is to bring in more such corporations and social enterprise to invest in the infrastructure and power in the rural areas of the country. Corporations such Coca Cola can make an enormous difference to the social and ecological structure of any nation as they have net worth running in billions of dollars. Taking something out from such oceans of wealth will only improve the credibility and market values of such companies. Even the stock markets have been known to respond positively to the successful completion of CSR projects as builds credibility and trust amongst the customers and investors. Every company and sell and deliver products and services but only companies with genuine ethical culture can build real goodwill from social work.