Solar power at a school in Jalka
In March 2009, Greenpeace India installed solar panels onto the roof of two schools in Jalka Village, Yavatmal district, Maharashtra. The village had come to the country’s attention when Rahul Gandhi used the example of Kalavati, a widow living without electricity in Jalka, as supporting evidence for India’s need to expand her nuclear power generation. Set up in a mere three days, the photovoltaic panels serve to both refute the need for the lengthy set-up times and implicated dangers of nuclear power plants, and also as a symbol of how decentralised renewable systems can provide energy solutions for rural communities. Six months later, the residents of Jalka gave their verdicts on the system.
Outside, crowds of men and women dance in the street to the boom of drums and jangling of pipes, raising clouds of dust and purple gulal into the air. It’s the last day of Dessara, but you wouldn’t know it to look at the children of Jalka. Inside the village primary school, the children are sitting quietly, heads bent in concentration under the steady whir of electric fans.
“Attendance has really improved since the fans were installed,” says Joti Hirurkar, a teacher at Jalka Zilla Prishad School. “Instead of fidgeting and running around, the students are more comfortable and sit quietly and study. Before the fans, kids also used to fall sick a lot due to the heat. That’s not happening anymore.”
Before the installation of the solar panels, the primary school had an electricity connection that afforded them a single light bulb, an mismatching and unnecessary cost in an establishment that was closed at night time but experienced temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius during the day. The secondary school, which is semi-private, uses its solar panels to run the village’s only computer. A local electrician maintains both systems, at a small cost to the schools.
Three-quarters of the houses in Jalka are connected to the centralised power grid – the remainder of the population live below the poverty line and can’t afford it – but the power supply is unreliable, inflicting seven to eight hours of power cuts per day at the time of writing. Vidharba region, of which Yavatmal is a constituent district, generates a surplus of the power it needs through its four thermal power plants, but over half is transmitted to other states.
And the villagers’ power requirements extend further than lights or fans, with more immediate financial consequences.
“The power cut is during the day, so we have no power to irrigate our crops,” says Rudeshwar, a panchayat member and farmer. “There’s water in the well, but no way to spread it. Drinking water should be pulled up by electric pumps too, but we’re having to use hand pumps instead.”
Most Jalka farmers grow cotton , which needs at least an hour of rain every eight days to flourish, something the residents say can no longer be relied upon.
“The monsoon this year has been particularly bad,” continues Rudeshwar, “though generally rainfall has been decreasing over recent years. And the weaker the monsoon, the more power we’ll need for irrigation. This year, I think we will have lost 90% of our crop. We’re waiting to see if the government will waive our loans.”
In fact, this year’s monsoon has brought the lowest rainfall in the Vidharba region of the last ten years. Yavatmal district, previously known as the ‘suicide belt’ of the region, has been the worst hit.
However, so satisfied are Jalka’s residents with the uninterrupted power supply to the school’s fans that they have sent a written proposal to the panchayat samiti requesting that solar panels be placed on the roof of every house.
“We see the solar panels working perfectly. In our village, the electricity is not working perfectly. Therefore we would like all power to come from panels like this,” reiterates Anasua, the panchayat president. “Everybody signed the letter, though we haven’t heard anything back yet. Rudeshwar also met the BJP candidate and told him the same thing, but we’re waiting for his visit also.”
As an alternative to photovoltaic panels on every roof, Jalka’s residents are also open to the idea of a community solar power plant, which would spread electricity through a decentralised grid. This might be better, they think, because it would allow the responsibility of the panels’ maintenance to be shared. They’ve also put thought into how the costs will be covered.
“The government paid for 90% of the cost of our electric water pump. We paid for the other 10% and are paying for the warden to take care of it, and the electricity we use through it,” explains Rudeshwar. “We’d be willing to follow a similar scheme with solar.”
“Decentralised systems would be a good thing for the whole village, ” concludes Joti Hirurkar. “Particularly for small businesses that do things like flour grinding – these get hit very hard by the power shortages. As for our school, next we’d like to use solar to power a computer.”
