The Dark Knight

Its difficult to believe that something as insignificant as a lantern can change lives of the people. But its a true story and the results have already started showing up. In rural India, around 70 percent of rural areas lack electricity and over 60 percent of these rural households depend on kerosene as their primary fuel and even more use kerosene lamps as back up for power outages. However the scenario is quickly changing with Solar lamps taking place of kerosene lamps.

Solar lamp, flourescent bulb powered by rechargeable batteries, is proving to be a boon for rural households as it holds a number of advantages over a kerosene lamp. Firstly, kerosene is an expensive fuel and a lot of money goes in subsidizing the fuel whereas a solar lamp can be easily charged at a local communal rooftop solar panel at no cost. On an average, a rural household using a solar lamp can save $ 250 annually. Secondly burning kerosene consistently can cause respiratory diseases and releases green house gases to the atmosphere. Thirdly, with kerosene lamps there is always a risk of accidents which is totally absent in solar lamps.

Many social experiments have been conducted in which solar lamps were provided by NGOs to a small section of rural population, with little or no access to power, to understand the impact of solar lamps on the lives of the people. These areas, as most of the villages in India, were either not connected to the grid or even if they were, they don't receive power early in the morning or in the evening as power utilities direct most of the power to cities during peak hours. In all the experiments, it has been found out that these lamps have been particularly helpful to housewives and school going children, as housewives were able to complete their house hold work after sunset and children were able to study more resulting in improved performance at school. Monetory and health benefits were additional.

The only issue with solar lamps is the cost of the equipment. Although, with the advancement in technology, it has been continuously falling, but the equipment is still out the reach of those who need it the most. Various models have been tried to overcome this issue such as providing lamp at daily rental of Rs 6-9 , NGOs/ corporates either subsidize the partial or the full cost of the equipment etc. but none of them offers a sustainable and scalable solution. In the absence of any other appropriate solution, I think state governments should take the initiative and provide subsidies or tax incentives on the sale of lamps. Governments of Harayan and Gujrat have already announced subsidy for Solar home lightening systems. Hope other state governments will follow the suit too and rural population would be able to dream of a bright future.

Thank you for reading. Please provide your feedback. Keep checking my blog to see how renewable energy is changing our lives and face of our planet.