HYDERABAD: Remote area households will get a lighting system powered by a battery charged by small solar panels or even manual power for less than Rs. 1,500 if the consortium formed by the Environment Protection, Training and Research Institute (EPTRI) has its way.

The consortium, consisting of EPTRI, Satyam Foundation, Centre for Environment Concerns, ThinkSoft Consultants and Confederation of Voluntary Organisations, has embarked on the concept of introducing white light LED home lighting technology for low-cost, long-lasting and renewable energy home lighting systems.

Marketing support

Designed to meet the power needs of developing nations, all that the new system needs is a battery change every three or four years. Over a hundred systems are already functional in Nallamala forest hamlets and there is clamouring for many more of these lights.

The consortium also offers management and marketing support to women self-help groups of the city, for a sustainable livelihood by assembling the systems.

The locally manufactured low-cost systems will enable tribal cooperatives to purchase them for members without subsidy.

"The new system is a gift for the developing world," says Dave Irvine-Halliday, the system innovator and founder-president of Light Up the World Foundation.

Mr. Halliday signed a technology-sharing MoU with the EPTRI Director-General C. Gayatri Ramachandran on Tuesday.

Ms. Ramachandran said that the consortium would initially install the system in 3,000 homes as part of a pilot project funded by the Union Tribal Welfare Ministry and the project would cost some Rs. 75 lakhs over a three-year period.

Efforts were under way to bring cost down by indigenising the fast-developing technology.

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