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Rajasthan village gets solar power

A unique initiative: Street light powered by solar energy being installed at Gowada Deori village in Alwar district of Rajasthan.

JAIPUR: An initiative for solar electrification taken by an international renewable energy major has brought clean and energy-efficient power for lighting to the remote Gowada Deori village in Alwar district of Rajasthan. The unique project has benefited about 500 residents of the small and nondescript village.

All the 93 households, two temples, the lone government middle school and the streets in the village now have lighting using the energy harnessed from the sun. The household and community activities, earlier held in the dark, have a reliable supply of power to depend upon.

Conergy AG, an international supplier and producer of renewable energy solutions, has brought the solar power system to Gowada Deori in partnership with the Lodge Elysium Masonic Trust of New Delhi. The project has supplied and installed 940 watts of solar power in the village.

The project forms part of the Conergy Renewable Energy Village Initiative supported by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Conergy India managing director Rajesh Bhat said the funds for the project were raised through a charity golf tournament organised in November last year.

Mr. Bhat said renewable energy was the most economically and technologically viable solution for electrification needs of remote and inaccessible villages situated far away from the Grid. Gowada Deori village in Rajgarh panchayat samiti of Alwar district is surrounded largely by the jungle terrain.

Conergy India, through its subsidiary Sun Technics, has already installed several hundred renewable energy systems and environment-friendly solar power projects improving the living standards of over 1 lakh people in 250 villages across the country.

Mr. Bhat pointed out that about 13 per cent of the 6 lakh villages in the country were in the remote territories, making it very difficult and expensive for the public Grid to supply power there. “Off-Grid energy products such as solar powered home and street lighting systems serve as affordable, efficient and eco-friendly alternatives,” he said.

Masonic Trust chairman Venkittu Sundaram said India’s potential for renewable energy projects far exceeded the current installed capacity. Of the current 1.44 lakh MW electricity produced in the country, only 8.4 per cent comes from renewable sources.

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