Status of renewable energy technologies in Urjagrams in India

Abstract

SYNOPSIS Urjagram literally means an “energy village” (urja is energy and gram is village). The Urjagram programme is aimed at harnessing the locally available renewable energy sources such as biomass, solar and wind in an integrated way at the village level. The energy produced through these sources will be utilised for such end-uses as cooking, lighting, agriculture and cottage industries in the villages. In India, 244 urjagram programmes have been established in 17 states and 168 were under progress by the end of December 1996. Under the evaluation for appraising the study undertaken, 15 urjagrams were covered in India. They comprised four villages in the state of Uttar Pradesh, three each in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, two in Haryana, and one each in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir. The dissemination of renewable energy technologies was undertaken with involvement of local institutions and state nodal agencies. Periodic monitoring and inspection was conducted by the regional offices of the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources. The study indicated that the duration of implementation for completed urjagrams varied from one to 24 months. The functionality of solar devices was higher (67%) than other technologies. Most of the successful programmes can be attributed to the people's involvement in the management and participation in implementation of the technologies. There are substantial gaps in the number of sanctioned and actually installed systems. These range from 35% to 75% for biomass technologies and 13% to 77% for solar technologies. The investment made on the solar devices has been the largest (81%) of the total expenditure of Rs. 10 million on the 15 urjagram projects. Even though the urjagram as a concept is sound, it did not have an adequate impact due to faulty implementation and lack of proper institutional arrangements.