Lighting Lives: Empowering Children's Futures with Clean Energy

A primary school in Shindi village in Beed district of Maharashtra faced long hours of power cuts. This resulted in heightened heat stress for students during the peak summer months, which often resulted in a significant drop in attendance. Power outages also rendered the digital learning assets inoperable hampering the learning of students.

Things changed when the school got electrified the school with a 5KW off-grid solar rooftop under ReNew Foundation's Lighting Lives Program. The Program also introduced a structured climate curriculum in the school.

The students can now use the smart boards and learn in an interactive environment even when the teacher is not available. The students are also becoming climate-engaged as is evident through their school projects and community initiatives.

ReNew Lighting Lives: Enabling clean energy access and climate education in schools

UNICEF analysis shows 54 million+ students in India (i.e. ~22% of student population) had their education disrupted due to heatwaves in 2024. While energy access has improves, there are last-mile power outages, especially in rural areas in the peak demand months.

ReNew Lighting Lives is changing this lived reality for students by improving energy reliability through clean energy in schools.

Key outcomes achievable through ReNew Lighting Lives

• Reduction in no. of hours of power outage
• Savings in electricity costs – used towards school development activities
• Improvement in attendance during peak summer months v/s. baseline
• Improvement in students’ positive climate engagement v/s. baseline

Over 255 schools have been electrified supporting the learning journey of over 50,000 students. In addition, students in 5000+ schools have been provided access to the climate curriculum.

Our call for action

This fundraiser supports the activities under Lighting Lives in 5 schools in Barmer district in Rajasthan.

What will the funds be used for?

1. School selection

• Identify schools in regions facing more than 3 hours of power outage during day hours
• Obtain permissions from the appropriate govt. authorities for school level activities

2. School level interventions

• Installation of solar panels (off-grid 5 – 7 kW) on school rooftops
• Introducing climate action curriculum in schools
• Providing smart boards/ interactive panels along with curriculum (in vernacular language) in schools for better learning

3. Post installation support

• Remotely monitor the assets deployed for a period of 3 years for their usage and addressing maintenance needs