Sun shines bright

True, despite the year long sunny climate in our country; we are barely making the best use of it. Things have slowed down a lot in the country’s solar programme but there have been some positives.

While some societies and commercial spaces use solar panels in some of the Indian cities, our villages are doing much better.  As of June 2013, over 10,154 villages of the proposed 12,771 villages have been provided solar electricity. This was sanctioned under a Remote Village Electrification programme of the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy at a cost of Rs.715 crore. Assam tops the list with 1883 villages, Tripura with 842 villages, Manipur with 240 villages, West Bengal with 1179 villages, Odisha with 950 villages, Kerala with 607 villages, Uttarakhand with 594 villages and Madhya Pradesh with 515 villages- all the villages in these states were chosen because conventional grid extension is not feasible here.

To have a steady source of clean, renewable energy can be a boon, a dramatic change in the lives of the villagers. 24 hours of electricity, well running pumps of drinking water, community refrigerators storing medicines and first aid kits are just some of the changes, a simple solar panel can bring about in the lives of these villages. Yes, sun is indeed the life giver….