This article shares the experience of deploying CSPP (Community Solar Power Plants) by a private enterprise in two villages of India. The article touches upon various aspects of village electrification, such as village mobilization, capacity building, technical solutions, and project execution.
The rural population in India does not have access to reliable energy. India has millions of tonnes of unused and available biomass waste. This loose biomass is currently treated as a waste with no economic value. It is often burnt inefficiently in open fields, causing air pollution. However this 'waste' can be turned into a completely environment-friendly source of energy through briquetting.
Based on very encouraging experiences with SK-14 cookers, Prof. Ajay Chandak designed solar community cookers of 2.0 m and 2.3 m diametres. After removing few teething problems, a number of agencies were trained to manufacture these community solar cookers.
In accordance with the fast growing population, the demand for energy and the discharge of waste are increasing day by day. The only remedy to the energy crisis is the use of alternative energy sources. And one of the best alternative ways is the generation of energy from waste, which is beneficial in several ways.
Biomass gasification is deemed as one of the best ways to power rural households across the world. It is basically the conversion of solid biomass (wood, agriculture residues and so on) into a combustible gas mixture known as Producer Gas. In India, small-scale biomass gasifiers have been installed in various states.
In Punjab, thousands of family-size biogas plants are satisfactorily functioning for the last two decades with 5-10 cattle heads. PAU (Punjab Agricultural University) has designed biogas plants of various capacities to cover different sizes of dairies.
Solar food dryers play an important role in the drying of agro-produce, which is an excellent way to preserve food. They are an appropriate food preservation technology for a sustainable world.
India is currently the world's fifth largest consumer of energy, accounting for 3.7% worldwide energy consumption. The energy for cooking accounts for 36% of the total primary energy consumption. In this regard, solar cookers are expected to contribute considerably towards meeting the domestic cooking energy requirement in a country like India, which is blessed with abundant sunshine.
India has a very huge potential of tree-born non-edible oil seeds. The country is endowed with more than 100 species of these oil seeds, occuring in the wild or cultivated sporadically to yield oil in considerable quantities. Attempts are being made to utilize non-edible and under-exploited oils for biodiesel production.
