The power of the sun!

You do not have electricity but you can still sit back and watch TV at home. Sounds ludicrous? But it is happening in Kenya.

Instead of using electricity, a lot of TVs at homes are powered by the sun. Known as AzuriTV, this is a new solar-powered satellite TV service that gives families access to 50 channels.

How does this work? First a solar panel is fixed to the roof of a customer's home, which is connected to a battery which powers a range of appliances, including lamps, a mobile phone charger, and a 24-inch (61cm) TV which accesses Zuku's Smart satellite TV service. Users have to pay an upfront fee of 4,999 Kenyan shillings or around Rs.3300 for installing the system and after that around Rs.98 per day. After the end of two years, the customer owns the kit outright.

Another such solar company - M-Kopa Solar has been providing pay-as-you-go solar power in East Africa for the past five years. About 500,000 households across the region use the company's products, and 10 months ago, the firm added 30 free-to-air TV channels to its offering.

A lot of these parts in Africa are already powering the gadgets and lights in their homes with solar power and this, of getting entertainment off the grid is a leap ahead in the future.

With India giving so much thrust to solar power, this is how we also have to look at the future ahead….going off the grid and reduce our dependence on electricity.