Bihar in focus

Energy, an essential need for every individual and for economic development, has always been particularly lacking in rural areas of this country. The current approach of the Government of India (GOI) to solve this problem focuses on extending the electricity grid (centralized system), which fails to attend the real needs of the poor and is too expensive. Alternatively, there is a huge potential for the use of decentralized energy systems both off & on-grid energy technologies, like small scale solar, wind, biogas digesters, biomass gasifiers and micro hydropower to meet these needs of the rural communities.

In this context, Bihar with a large portion of its population still having no access to electricity and having one of the largets energy deficits in the country is an ideal state to showcase a decentralized energy development paradigm.

Here’s what we plan to do in Bihar:

1. Investigate the role of decentralized renewable energy (DRE) development as a means for providing access to energy to a greater proportion of the un-electrified community in Bihar compared to the centralized alternative.
 
2. Investigate the potential for providing energy for industrial and commercial use as a means of stimulating investment in Bihar.

Based on the above we want the government to do the following:

• Focus on alleviating rural energy needs; to provide micro-credit and consulting for the promotion of off-grid renewable energy technologies (RET).
• Include capacity building in energy projects by creating partnerships with the community and providing technical assistance.
• Financially support local entrepreneurs who could either benefit from energy access or supply their communities with energy services.