Power To Empower

Improving access to proper lighting is critical. It increases income generation potential and also has a positive effect on school performance. Through providing households with better quality lighting, off-grid energy solutions have much broader social, environmental and economic impacts.

- Rahul Kamat

For villages and hamlets in India, the concept of reliable electricity has always been a distant dream. When one takes a road trip around these districts, the absence of electrical poles, lines or grid infrastructure is highly noticeable. Once the sun goes down, the Nearly 50 per cent of India’s rural popular on — 80 million households — has little or no access to grid-based electricity and instead relies on kerosene as its primary source of lighting. While government efforts are expected to increase grid connectivity, progress has been slow and the number of underserved households is expected to decline by only five per cent over the next 10 years.

While grid connectivity is expected to improve over the next 10 years, at the current rate of grid expansion, urbanisation and population growth, 70-75 million households will still lack access to grid electricity by 2024. Since 90 per cent of these households live in rural areas, a significant reduction in the 83 million rural households who are currently not served or underserved by the grid is unlikely.

Thankfully, growing awareness, falling prices and greater access to finance are making off-grid energy solutions–including solar lanterns, solar home systems (SHS) and decentralised or distributed renewable energy (DRE)–increasingly attractive to consumers. And while solar lanterns can meet basic lighting and mobile charging needs, SHS and DRE solutions are better positioned to serve the evolving demand for consumer goods, and desire for more reliable services.

Life without power