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Solar power sees the light of day

Meena Menon

In a longish room, young men and women are bent over large panels, preparing inverters which will be fitted into solar lamps. In a corner, Phansi, who is from Kumaon, conducts quality-checks on solar lamps. Angmo is from Lahaul Spiti. ``It's so hot here, I'm going back soon,'' she says, face flushed red in the afternoon heat.

At the campus of the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC), Tilonia, in Rajasthan's Ajmer district. It is rather hot in April, a far cry from the cooler climes of Lahaul Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. These young girls are here to learn how to fit and maint ain solar lanterns and home lighting systems, using solar energy. They are paid a stipend of Rs 900 per month. ``We do have electricity back home in Chimra village, but for six months of the year there is no light as we are snowbound.'' That's where sola r lamps come into play, murmurs Angmo. She is not a trained engineer and has passed the ninth standard.

In another corner of the room, women from nearby villages clean copper-wired transformers to be fitted into circuits. Wearing a saffron veil, Gulab from Harmeda village slowly wipes the copper wires clean. Gulab can repair a handpump and often goes from place to place doing just that, veil and all.

`Barefoot solar engineers'

Parts of the Indian countryside are littered with relics of solar panels or lamps which do not work. The malfunction is never corrected and they remain sentinels to what is possible but never executed.

Training `barefoot solar engineers' is a way out of this, feels Bunker Roy of SWRC, an ardent proponent of photovoltaic energy. And he practises what he preaches. The entire SWRC campus is powered by solar energy and there is rarely any fluctuation of po wer. The `barefoot college' is a new name for the SWRC founded in 1972 by Roy at Tilonia. The barefoot concept relies on the intelligence and practical skills of people who are not ``qualified'' or formally educated. For instance, the entire campus was d esigned by a person with no formal training in architecture.

The `barefoot college', selects villages or areas where solar electrification can be implemented. The user community selects the youth who will train as barefoot solar engineers to carry out the installation and implementation of solar lighting systems i n their villages.

Bhagwat Nandan from SWRC gives us a tour of the campus. Large solar panels glint on the rooftops of the squat buildings. Above the training room is a large contraption for heating water. There is a one-time cost of Rs 40,000 for 100 litres to instal the heater and the panels. It is very low maintenance, he says, pointing to the panels made at half the cost.

Electricity generated here has been installed with a 50 per cent subsidy from the Ministry for Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) and a soft loan from the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) at one per cent interest. ``Since 1984, we h ave been using solar energy and now the capacity of solar power has gone up to 40 KW. We also make solar lanterns, home lighting systems and can repair and maintain them, apart from testing the products,'' he says.

A project with financial assistance from the European Union (EU) and another by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is focusing on solar applications for homes. The EU project, started in February 1998, has funded solar energy programmes in L eh, Kumaon and Sikkim while under the UNDP project, launched in 1999 in seven States, about 20 villages of Zanskar Valley are being solar-electrified. The SWRC works in Changthang and Nubra Valley of Ladakh under the EU project.

Lighting up lives

The targeted areas have no electricity. SWRC is working closely on these projects and over 35 boys and girls are training at Tilonia from Ladakh, Kumaon, Bihar, Assam and Rajasthan. Today, there are over 23 barefoot solar engineers in 12 States and peopl e with varying educational qualifications, from standard II to graduation, have passed through the training sessions.

Motilal, also with SWRC, says Kamla from Rajasthan was the first solar engineer in 1996. Kamla, immortalised in a film, works at a field centre and services at least 30 villages, besides articulating the advantages of solar energy before diverse audience s.

Solar water-heaters are also being made. There are plans to market solar energy equipment as well.

According to Nawang Tsering, who runs a training workshop for solar engineers in Leh, Ladakh, ``There are 40 villages around Leh which have installed solar energy and some of them are seven days away by foot from Leh. The first village, Gurguda, near Kar gil, started using solar energy in 1989 on a trial basis. Between 1990 and 2001, 40 villages have been electrified in and around Leh and there are solar engineers who see to the upkeep of the lighting systems and the panels.''

In Ladakh, only Leh district has electricity from the 10-MW Stakna hydel project and the surrounding villages have erratic supply. In winter, there is no electricity. Solar power is the only alternative for Ladakh, he says, though a new hydel project has been promised.

In Leh, there are two women workers who repair solar lighting systems or installations though initially there was opposition to women being involved. The UNDP project has stipulated that women must be involved as solar engineers.

Demystifying technology

In Ladakh, remote villages in Nubra and Changthang valleys are inaccessible six months a year. The temperature can drop to -50 degrees Celsius in winter. Earlier, people lived in rooms stuffy with smoke from kerosene lamps. Today, there are solar lantern s which have proved to be a boon. Solar energy ensures at least three hours of electricity regularly.

Families are encouraged to look after and maintain power services. This is where the barefoot solar engineers come in handy. In Sikkim, before 1994, no one thought it possible that unemployed youth could be trained to become solar engineers. However, a s teady stream of youth has been trained and the Government too is keen on this project.

The SWRC goes beyond merely providing solar lamps or panels. It believes in demystifying technology and making it accessible to people.

According to Bunker, Barefoot college at Tilonia is the only grassroots organisation in India to be involved in the understanding and improvement of solar applications on a substantial scale since 1986.

A poster near the training room proclaims that the SWRC is the only fully solar-electrified institution in India and the planning and implementation as well repair and maintenance are carried out by rural youth who have barely passed primary school.

A working group was established by the Planning Commission on Options for Rural Electrification in remote and difficult areas in November 1999. One of its aims was to study the cost-effectiveness of solar power for non-electrified villages and suggest a policy approach for electrifying the remaining villages not connected by the electricity grid.

The cost to set up grids in remote hilly areas would be prohibitive, says Bunker, adding that solar systems are ideal for such places as they require no fuel, are pollution-free and easy to maintain. Is anyone listening?

Pic.: Future solar engineers from Lahaul Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.

Picture by the author.