RENEWABLE SOLAR ENERGY IN SARVAM(Sri Aurobindo Rural and Village Action and Movement) Villages

Electricity is a basic necessity for a progressive community. There are 25,000 households (with a population of 1,50,000) in the 60 villages that SARVAM has undertaken to create models of holistic development. Although the Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board has connected most of the areas in the villages, the quality, voltage and stability of power supply is very poor. In most of the houses, the supplied power can support merely a bulb or two.

This affects effectiveness of children’s education as well as livelihood activities of the community apart from hindering regular domestic chores at night.

SARVAM’s efforts towards facilitating and improving children education and developing economic security of women suffers a deterrent due to lack of proper useful electricity in the houses.

Installation of Solar energy - Most widely used renewable energy source i.e. energy from the sun provide consistent and steady source of solar power throughout the year. The main benefit of solar energy is that it can be easily deployed by both home and business users as it does not require any huge set up like in case of wind or geothermal power. Solar energy not only benefits individual owners, but also benefits environment.

As a pilot program, SARVAM plans to select 20-25 houses in 10 villages for implementing solar power units. These would serve as models for domestic solar energy and demonstrate, to the rest of the community, its advantages as well as proper usage. The community will be aware, ready and inspired to install and use solar power for domestic needs in subsequent scale-up. In addition to meet the need for :

Tuition Centres

Computer Centres

Rural Skill Development Centres

Community Radio Station

The definite impact will be

• Significant improvement in the children's education
• Income generation opportunities will improve specifically for women beneficiaries
• Entries of poisonous creatures like snakes, etc. will be reduced.
• Caring the elderly and sick people will be comfortable.