A growing number of renewables based off-grid solution providers in Bihar area working with villagers who have inadequate grid access and with commercial and industrial consumers facing poor grid reliability. Some of these consumers, who resorted to the use of expensive diesel generator (DG) sets, now report that renewable-based-off-grid solutions have reduced operational costs and environmental emissions.

About 85 km from Tehri Dam, one of the highest in the world, is a small village, Agunda, in Uttarakhand. It is like any other village in the hilly state except that it boasts its own power station. The village community operates and runs a 40 kW micro hydro power project.

Namrata Hingorani, an ex-business consultant who spent 22 years in the US and UK and has recently relocated to Mumbai wanted to celebrate her 40th birthday in a special way. She met with the Project Chirag team and decided to "light up" a village. It takes INR 3000-4000 to light up one house and each village has anywhere from 15 to 150 houses. She managed to raise more than INR 2.5 lakhs through friends and family, enough to light up 60+ homes.

A village council in the remote northeastern state of Nagaland has offered a template of investment that can be replicated by financial institutions and banks throughout the hilly and rural regions to harness the renewable energy potential of an area