EcoGeneration — September / October 2009, Aug 28, 2009
Grant Behrendorff discusses the collaborative development and demonstration of an optimised model for remote village electrification using renewable energy in India.
The successful Bushlight Project, which has brought reliable energy services to more than 4,000 residents of remote Indigenous communities across Australia over the last seven years, is now leading a project to electrify remote villages in eastern India.
As the name suggests, the Bushlight India Project aims to adapt the Bushlight Project’s innovative approach to implementing sustainable, reliable and affordable renewable energy supplies in remote Indigenous communities across central and northern Australia for use in remote rural areas of India.
The project’s formal title on the other hand, defines its key goals: to work with a range of Indian partner organisations to adapt the Bushlight model to local conditions; and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the model through the establishment of a number of decentralised renewable energy systems in remote villages.
Bushlight provides residents of remote Indigenous communities access to reliable renewable energy services within a comprehensive community engagement and planning framework – the Community Energy Planning Model (CEPM). This framework has been developed and refined over more than six years by a diverse group of engagement and planning specialists, anthropologists, linguists, engineers, renewable energy system designers and resource developers.
Established by the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) in 2002, Bushlight’s focus is on community-scale solar photovoltaic based renewable energy systems supporting a broad range of energy services at the household and community level. To date, the Bushlight model has been successfully deployed in over 100 remote communities across Australia resulting in the installation of over 140 systems.
As a result of the national and international recognition of the Bushlight model as best practice in the implementation of renewable energy systems in remote Indigenous communities, CAT saw an opportunity to adapt the model for use in other contexts, including the developing world. The Bushlight India Project is a result of this vision.
The Bushlight India Project is managed by CAT International Projects, a wholly owned subsidiary of CAT. The project is funded by the Department for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts through the Australian Government’s participation in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.
Overview of the project
In India today, between 115,000 and 150,000 villages exist without access to electricity. Of these, many thousands are too remote for grid electricity to ever be a technically or economically feasible option. For these villages to be electrified, the only solution is a standalone power system – also referred to as decentralised or distributed generation. Renewable energy technologies such as solar PV therefore offer remote communities the opportunity to generate their own energy without the prohibitive ongoing costs and access difficulties associated with fossil fuels.
Through the Bushlight India Project, CAT International Projects is working in partnership with Gram Vikas – a grassroots non-government organisation from the state of Orissa – Tata-BP Solar, and the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency, along with a range of other renewable energy and rural energy and development sector representatives, to collaboratively develop and document a Village Energy Service Delivery Model (VESDM). This model, which included village energy planning and technical resources in local languages, will be demonstrated through the establishment of standalone centralised PV based energy systems in at least two remote Indian villages.
Under the demonstration component of the project, up to 1,000 residents of rural Indian villages will be provided with access to reliable, 24 hour-a-day energy services, as well as targeted capacity building and support to help manage and maintain the renewable energy systems.
By working closely with project partners on the ground in India, CAT aims to build the capacity of these organisations to independently implement the VESDM on a broader scale within the rural electrification sector.
Outcomes to date
The project, which commenced last year, is now in its implementation phase. The Village Energy Planning component of the VESDM, which includes a facilitators manual and a full suite of planning resources in two Indian languages, has been finalised, and training conducted with local facilitators. Village selection activities have been carried out in the states of Orissa and West Bengal, and two villages have been nominated to participate in the project. Energy planning activities have subsequently been completed in one of the two villages, and a system design for this village is underway.
On the technical side, a design and manufacturing strategy has been finalised. This strategy lays out the key operation and functional parameters for the proposed renewable energy systems based on an analysis of community demand profiles in target villages, together with a review of the limitations of existing service delivery standards.
Local component manufacturers and suppliers have been identified. Project-specific hardware needs have been determined and their design and development have been contracted to a local company. The project has also developed a system design spreadsheet and other design tools including a life cycle costing tool for comparing the relative costs of the proposed centralised PV based systems against grid-connection and other standard rural energy supply options in India, such as solar lanterns, small solar home systems and diesel generators.
Installation of the two demonstration systems is planned to be completed by May next year, which will allow for six months of close monitoring of system operation and performance before the project formally closes with a review and dissemination workshop in December 2010.
Grant Behrendorff is the Project Director of the Bushlight India Project. For more Information about the project contact Grant on 0427 514 330 or visit http://www.catprojects.com.au
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