Introduction:
For equitable development of a nation, it is essential that access to and availability of energy sources is guaranteed to all. As of now in India, there is considerable inequity in energy distribution between rural and urban households. While the energy generating capacity in the country has gone up, 40% of the households (mostly in rural areas), till date, don’t have access to electricity. There is a great need and urgency to ensure energy access to all, especially the rural segment, who is the most affected.
However, pursuing the current model of energy system, based on centralised option may not be the right way forward. For a year now, Greenpeace has been working to implement the energy access campaign in Bihar1 , to challenge the dominant perception that centralised addition will deliver power to all. The organisation has been campaigning to create political and policy champions who will support decentralised systems which will lead to renewable sources of energy generation.
Greenpeace aims to bring forth a change in the current energy system of India by means of this project and Bihar has been identified as the flag bearer for setting in motion a nationwide revolution for renewable energy. The “Bihar model” can offer a new negotiating leverage for Rio+20 conference on energy access. It represents a model of decentralised renewable energy (DRE) development for the many poor countries, especially in Africa, that have similar socio-economic conditions to Bihar.
A huge investment opportunity exists in the state to make DRE an important tool for energy access. The current leadership especially the Chief Minister of Bihar, has demonstrated a strong commitment toward renewable energy (RE) which would help in shaping the policy to enhance the investment.
From the perspective of business opportunities, such a shift is advantageous as the RE sector is well placed to develop and offer a wide range of solutions and applications. However, the acceleration of such a process is also constrained by certain barriers to renewable energy in Bihar. In summary, these barriers could be highlighted as issues related to technical and financial viability and investments, support infrastructure and infrastructure bottle-necks and regulatory hurdles. Simultaneously, the political will in Bihar can be used as tool to remove these barriers for a massive uptake on renewable energy and subsequently driving investment.
The international business conference on 15th May at Hotel Maurya, Patna, Bihar focuses specifically on the issue of DRE and energy access. The conference intends to bring global perspectives on driving investment and various other frameworks needed for development of low-carbon economic model in the country.
Conference will have following session:
Inaugural Session - The session will try to get a wide range of recommendations on renewable energy promotion (with focus on distributed and mid-scale) to Bihar government and for upcoming Rio+20 conference on energy access. Greenpeace will release the Bihar E(R) report with focus on smart energy access and development of micro-grid for rural electrification.
Energy Access - Vision and Roadmap - This session will look into the various aspects of DRE development process to empower economies. The session will talk about the model of micro-grid development in Bihar and creating a roadmap for future technological advancement.
The session also aims to bring the global perspectives on RE from developers and recommend various measures for such projects in Bihar.
Energy For all - Challenges and Policy option- With specific case-studies and various learnings, the session will throw light on various policy requirements that will help enhance the investment in RE. The session will focus on ground success/pilot models of smart technologies and learnings on regulatory challenges/bottlenecks in mass deployment.
More information will be available soon.
For further details please contact:
Name: Mr. Uday Kumar
Email: 
Mobile: +91 96865 04835