Spark in the night

SO what is it that has prompted the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources MNES to extend this to 100 villages across the country? Ap...

IT8217;S official. About 25,000 villages in India, of them 1,300 in Madhya Pradesh alone, will not be connected to the grid by 2012. But there is a silver lining to these dark figures. One of their kind, Kasai in Betul district, began generating electricity with the help of a biomass gassifier last month.

These gassifiers designed by the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore burn twigs and branches to produce carbon monoxide that runs 10 KW generators. This power is enough to light up streetlights and two bulbs per household for at least six hours every night.

RESIDENTS of Kasai village are among India8217;s many who can literally count the number of times they have seen a lit bulb. And electricity is not the only thing that the Korku tribals of these 55 households lack. They have so little that they never bother to lock their homes.

But subtle signs of celebration are evident. Every evening now children flock to the three television sets in the village, women cook bajra rotis in brightly-lit rooms, there are fairy lights around posters of Gods and Goddesses, in others around filmstars.

There are ripple effects of power. There is a semblance of a road for people who had to earlier walk 10 km to reach the nearest roadhead. A flour mill is already operational. Plans are afoot to start a chilling plant for milk.

SO what is it that has prompted the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources MNES to extend this to 100 villages across the country? Apart from being the first to generate electricity from biomass, it also marks a first in the way it is managed and financed. Against all conventional norms, the MNES has devised a scheme by which they can finance the village directly. A village energy committee has been set up with villagers as members. Central funds worth 90 per cent of the capital cost of the project flows directly into their bank account.

A village energy fund has been created with initial contributions from each household. Each household is charged Rs 70 per month. Local youth have been trained to run the plant.

Another first, is that the forest department is the implementing agency. Since most of these villages lie in the forest fringes, it is just an extension of their activities. They are given 10 per cent of the money as professional fees.

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8216;8216;This is a new model of financing. It was important to give a feeling of ownership to the villagers so that they can sustain it. I thought the only agency that could implement is was the forest department,8217;8217; says A M Gokhale, secretary MNES.

When the village proposes to set up the project, they also have to show the land where a plantation can come up. A project typically requires 60 headloads of wood to generate electricity for six hours everyday. Kasai has already planted jatropha in 10 hectares.

Already, another project has been commissioned in Devrabandi in Madhya Pradesh. By next year, 13 more will come up in the state.

Though these technologies have been dismissed as being 8216;8216;too insignificant8217;8217; compared to grid power, they have brought electricity to India8217;s dark corners bypassed by conventional energy.