Energy Sharing & Women Entrepreneurship
I have already explained the drawbacks of Grid connected system in the remote villages over rooftop solar in my previous article. I will explain a little bit more before starting my next article.
Solar Rooftop | Rural Spark
There are many advantages of the Solar Rooftop solution for the remote villages-
The Solar rooftop solution has very low installation cost compared with the grid & it is a quick solution for the remote unelectrified villages, it is a stand-alone system which full fill users perday requirement also they can sell excess energy to the neighbors for which they can make extra income.
The Rural Spark India has made entrepreneurial energy kit through which local can full fill their daily requirement & sell excess energy to others in the nearby areas on a specified perday cost.
The above picture shows how kit installation connects several villagers. The Rural Spark Energy Kit includes “Router” a smart converter, a “Smart Charger” a smart power bank which can charge & discharge at the same time, it is a modular battery pack which is used as a backup after sunset, it can be used to charge mobile phone, tv, fan, rechargeable lamp etc through router.
The design of the kit is made in such a way that the villagers can rent out rechargeable lamps, modular battery pack, USB bulbs to earn more income & create entrepreneurship among them, charging station has several USB ports to charge lamps, mobile phones etc. to make money.
Since the locals in the village cannot buy the Rural Spark energy kit because of their low income,to solve this problem, router is made to work on a weekly/monthly token system which activates the router after entering the token successfully so that it can be used for all the required work. The EMI is a monthly installment which locals pay every month. When the expenses of the kit is completed(takes 2 years of monthly installment)the router is unlocked & locals can use it for a lifetime without any payment. Some of the examples of energy sharing idea are shown below.
There are some more interesting stories which we have seen among the womens in the villages. The women of villages also come & participate in the revolutionary idea called “Energy Sharing” they rent out the kits from home & collect rent by their own which makes a wonderful example of “Women Entrepreneurship” read more stories from the link given below
Women Entrepreneur -
Since Energy never used as a direct source, it is always used as a byproduct. It is either used as to glow bulbs to make our children study in the night, watch TV for entertainment, use it for fan or to use it at a large scale, but we made a new byproduct of the energy, we made women entrepreneur in the villages to do business independently. They are now a businesswoman, they are not only a wife, a mother, a daughter-in-law & this is our contribution towards the women entrepreneur growing world. After installation of several kits in the villages we saw smile on the children faces, we saw the woman to come out of their home to do business, these are the motivation we got & decide to move on next level to work for “Women” because we can not make a village, a state, a country or a planet without “Women Involvement”
There are also positive impacts on the business as well as education of the children in the night, there are some Local Energy Suppliers who we identify & target to sell the kit, after that the LES(Local Energy Supplier) starts renting out lamps, battery packs etc. & so the locals who don’t have Rural Spark Energy kit can also use to continue their business even when there is no sun, children can continue their study after sunset. So the one Rural Spark Entrepreneur Kit provides energy at least four houses.
After the installation of several kits in Bihar & Jharkhand, our next design will be of high capacity where LES can also share electrical energy along with lightning & battery packs.
