BiharBrains

Why This project ? As per 2001 Census, only 43.5 % of the rural households has availability of electricity in whole India. For Bihar and Jharkhand. The situation is more worse where almost 85 % of Villages are un-electrified or there is no transformers /powers cable available. So, lets get together and and give ray of light to our fellow Biharis and Jharkhandis.

Objective: The objective is aimed at providing a viable, suitable and an alternative use of solar energy for electrification of villages in Bihar / Jharkhand. The classification of user can range from household, agricultural industries such as irrigation pumps, etc., service industries such as schools , dispensaries / hospitals, hotels, shopkeepers and hawkers.

Harnessing solar power : As India is located in tropical zone, solar energy is abundantly available most of a years. Basically the energy from SUN can be used in 2 forms.

For the said project , in phase-1, we will concentrate on using solar photo voltaic application of solar power. In this, we will be using solar energy in three viable applications.

1. Solar lantern: It is a portable emergency light powered by sun energy. There is a solar panel of 10W, which has to be kept in the sun and through the cable plugged into the lantern. When the SUN is falling on the solar module, current is produced and it then charges the battery in the solar lantern. For a daily sun light charge, the light can be used for 4 hours everyday. The lantern consists of 7W component fluorescent light, giving a brightness of 350 lumens. When the light burns, it is possible to read and write in a room size of 100Sq.Ft.

The life of the solar panel is about 20-25 years and the battery is 3 years and the bulb is for 5 years. It is an easily affordable product for the home and absolutely maintenance free.

2. Solar home / small premises lighting system: You can have 2-light fitting and a small table fan powered by solar energy. The 35W solar panel, can power this system, for every day sun light charge for 2 hours.This product is very useful as emergency light for the house and each light consist of 11 W CFL lamp. This will offer brightness equivalent to 650 lumens. Again. there is no maintenance in this product.

3. Solar power emergency systems: The solar power emergency system is basically for the urban /village areas where there is frequent disruption of state electricity. You can have solar power system to provide emergency lighting or fan load in a house or shop or office or common area for apartments . They are much reliable and cheaper to have than conventional portable generators.

All the above products, can be easily retrofitted in any roof top - either on asbestos roof / RCC roofing.

Vendors of Solar Power products:
There are lots of suppliers and vendors In India for the solar panels and other solar system. I have contacted few of them and have technically as well as commercially analysed their products. Selection of vendors shall be done based best and cheap products and have a recommendable reference list of their products in India.

Estimated Budget :
1) For solar lanterns :
The estimated budget / cost for providing electricity by one solar lanterns each to at least houses / shops in a villages will be about Rs. 70,000 including transportation and installation of the system.

2) For solar home / small premises lighting system :
The estimated budget / cost for providing electricity to one small premises ( considering two nos. of rooms ) plus one dispensary ( considering one room ) in 1 (one) village will be about Rs. 80,000 including transportation and installation of the system.

Supports available : Different supports are available from the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency for the use of solar energy products. These supports ranges form Micro- Finance to subsidized price of different solar products.