Decentralized renewable energy (DRE) solutions are well-established in meeting small-scale rural energy needs in an affordable, reliable, and carbon-neutral manner.
New Delhi : For a large and dispersed rural country like India, decentralised power generation systems offer a more efficient power system where electricity is generated and consumed at the same place. For prosumers — those who generate and consume power at source — there is a significant reduction in transmission and distribution losses as compared to traditional power distribution systems.
Decentralized renewable energy (DRE) solutions are well-established in meeting small-scale rural energy needs in an affordable, reliable, and carbon-neutral manner. Such socio-technical transitions offer substantial support to address energy poverty and acts as a key tool in ameliorating human well-being, economic prosperity, and environmental conservation envisioned under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
New and innovative technologies developed are going beyond conventional uses like lighting to creating livelihoods at the local level and powering other critical functions for communities. DRE-powered ecosystems unlock socio-economic co-benefits by impacting sectors such as healthcare, education, livelihoods, irrigation etc.
Healthcare
The outbreak of covid-19 has tested the strength of India’s healthcare infrastructure and has demanded an upgrade starting with reliable energy access. Due to reverse migration during the lockdown, for the majority of the population, rural health infrastructure was the only option for treatment. The Rural Health Statistics 2020 data showed over 28 percent of sub-centres in India are still operating without electricity supply.
Health professionals in rural clinics face many challenges on a daily basis. If the cold chain is inoperable when supplies such as vaccines and blood arrive, it gets wasted if not used immediately. In addition, health facilities need energy for cooling, heating, and sterilization. In the absence of reliable power supply, this demand is mostly met by direct combustion of fuels like diesel or biomass.
Lack of energy access is also one of the contributing factors to why the new medical graduates hesitate to get posted in any medical centres in the rural areas. However, this has put a lot of pressure on bigger medical institutions for treatment of cases that can be dealt with in local health centres itself provided they have infrastructure that can operate reliably. DRE enabled rural health infrastructure can effectively share the load with other clinics and hospitals and contribute to achieving SDG 3: Good health and well-being.
Education
In any place, the quality of education depends upon the availability of basic infrastructure such as classrooms, water and sanitation facilities, electricity, and digital learning tools — all of which needs reliable electricity to function effectively.
A great divide between the urban and rural education infrastructure, fuelled by lack of energy access in the rural setting therefore does not come as a surprise. For example, schools in rural areas often use inefficient modes of cooking to prepare mid-day meals. This pollutes the premises and affects the health of everyone around. Implementation of DRE in schools can generate interests of the students to learn about renewable energy and also address SDG4: quality education.
Livelihoods
India is predominantly an agricultural nation, yet farmers and the rural poor remain underserved. As per estimates, the power consumption by the agriculture sector in India is close to 18%, whereas, its contribution to the GDP stands at 20%.
We have not been able to reduce this discrepancy even after a number of reforms, including subsidised electricity. Instead of alleviating the issue of lack of energy access, low-tariffed or free electricity has increased the financial stress of the discoms. This was amplified even more by the transmission and distribution (T&D) losses added with electricity theft.
The T&D losses in India is more than 20 percent which ideally should be between 6-8 percent. Such a scenario immediately demands support for the dire need of decentralized form of energy generation for electrification, irrigation, processing units and storage to address the current as well as growing agricultural needs.
An integrated approach and implementation of all renewable energy sources, as deemed fit, can transform the rural activities, promote growth, ensure enhanced income generation and of course help discoms to improve their efficiency.
The KUSUM scheme by the government of India, if implemented properly, along with financial support, will help in reducing the dependency on erratic grid supply, reduce carbon emissions and generate additional income during its non-usage days.
Similarly, MNREs announcement of the draft policy framework for developing and promoting Decentralized Renewable Energy Livelihood Applications could be a game changer in ameliorating the rural infrastructure and boost rural income levels. DRE for livelihoods will ensure our commitment for SDG 8: decent work and economic growth.
Gender Parity
The inclusion of women is the only way to achieve universal energy access. However, despite the fact that women are instrumental, and play a key part in the diffusion of DRE in communities, their role is not fully recognised in policies and availability of finance.
Women, who take care of daily household chores, are more affected because of the lack of economical energy infrastructure in their homes. Most DRE applications involve an upfront investment from the customer, and end-user credit becomes a critical driver of growth for the sector.
DRE based applications have also encouraged women to come forward and successfully own and run businesses, thereby contributing significantly to SDG5: gender equality.
Source: ETEnergyWorld
