Sarvantara, a village in Uttar Pradesh has electricity in almost 100 households. This is because of Clementine Chambon, a student from Imperial College, London, the U.K. She is in her final-year of her PhD.
The youngster has a social enterprise start-up named Oorja. And, through this, she has helped connect homes with a mini eight-kWh solar energy grid.
Oorja promotes sustainable local economic development, and hopes to give clean energy to 450 million people who have no access to reliable electricity in rural India.
What it is all about
The mini solar grid provides energy-affordable lighting, charging phones and running fans in homes.
A majority of the population in Sarvantara are farmers. Chambon said that her project would help increase their productivity. “The renewable energy generated will also power pumps to provide irrigation services to farmers, providing significant cost savings compared to diesel-powered pumps,” she says. “The farmers are relieved that an alternative to expensive diesel pumps will be available...”.
In the pipeline
Chambon plans to expand her project and fit the 100 households with smart meters to ensure remote monitoring of real-time energy generation and consumption.
A statement from Imperial College. London reads, “The next stage will involve a pilot of a hybrid mini-grid that will generate electricity from solar energy and biomass providing a bigger supply of electricity to power small enterprises, such as grain mills, sewing cooperatives and water purification stations in the village.
