The Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Mr. Farooq Abdullah, along with The Norwegian Ambassador, Ms. Ann Ollestad visited the villages Maanpura in Madhya Pradesh and Narwara in Uttar Pradesh. Their visit marked the ongoing implementation of a solar energy project jointly financed by the Indian and Norwegian government together with Scatec Solar on rural electrification in India.
As a result of the project cooperation Community Solar Power Plants (CSPPs) will be provided to 30 villages in four Indian states. The project target is to install approximately 300 kWp in the villages that are not currently connected to the grid. In total this will have an impact on approximately 1214 families in villages located in Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Kashmir & Jammu. The project in almost all the villages will be completed by December 2010 barring the 2 villages in Kargil that will have power plants by July next year.
The public-private-people partnership is co-financed by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) with 63%, the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) with 30% and Scatec Solar with 7% of total project costs. Project monitoring is taken care of by Indian Renewal Energy Development Agency (IREDA).
To facilitate local engagement, the project has also engaged five NGO’s namely Pradhan, Hritika, Srijan, Development Alternatives and Ledeg that will act as door openers into the project villages and work to mobilize the villagers and analyze the needs of the community.
The project is aimed at making electrification of villages result in increased income generation and economic development in the villages. This will also ensure the sustainability of the project. This consists of a robust business model that is based on a local revenue scheme that is sustainable and easily replicable. The electricity tariffs are based on what villagers currently pay for different sources of energy, such as kerosene and diesel.