Page 11 - Lighting a Billion Lives - Developing Pathways for Energy Access
P. 11
LIGHTING A BILLION LIVES: DEVELOPING PATHWAYS FOR ENERGY ACCESS
Introduction
Background
Economically poor rural communities that either do not have electricity supply or suffer from erratic and
insufficient supply still have to resort to the use of environmentally unsustainable fuel such as kerosene
for meeting their lighting needs. In India, 61 million rural households have no access to electricity and
use kerosene for lighting which amounts to 2.2 billion litres of kerosene per year to be burned for
lighting. This burning of kerosene results in approximately 5.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions per year . In response to this unfortunate state, the Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) programme
by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) was initiated in 2008 towards providing sustainable energy
to these rural communities and thus, enable people to receive clean, healthy and adequate light at an
affordable cost.
Energy Delivery Model
LaBL initiated its operation with the technology of Solar Charging Station (SCS) which is a community-
based lighting option with mobile lanterns. One SCS usually consists of 50 lanterns, 5 solar panels, and
5 junction boxes. These lanterns provides light equivalent to a 40 W incandescent bulb for 4–6 hours
and are given on rental basis to households and enterprises in the evening at a nominal charge on per
day per lantern basis. Although LaBL began its operation with SCS technology but through years it has
evolved various other solar technologies aiming to light up the households in the rural communities.
Such other lighting models under LaBL are:
Solar Micro Grid through which low voltage electricity is distributed over a short distance from the
battery banks for 4 hours every night to power the household/shop lights;
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Introduction
Background
Economically poor rural communities that either do not have electricity supply or suffer from erratic and
insufficient supply still have to resort to the use of environmentally unsustainable fuel such as kerosene
for meeting their lighting needs. In India, 61 million rural households have no access to electricity and
use kerosene for lighting which amounts to 2.2 billion litres of kerosene per year to be burned for
lighting. This burning of kerosene results in approximately 5.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions per year . In response to this unfortunate state, the Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) programme
by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) was initiated in 2008 towards providing sustainable energy
to these rural communities and thus, enable people to receive clean, healthy and adequate light at an
affordable cost.
Energy Delivery Model
LaBL initiated its operation with the technology of Solar Charging Station (SCS) which is a community-
based lighting option with mobile lanterns. One SCS usually consists of 50 lanterns, 5 solar panels, and
5 junction boxes. These lanterns provides light equivalent to a 40 W incandescent bulb for 4–6 hours
and are given on rental basis to households and enterprises in the evening at a nominal charge on per
day per lantern basis. Although LaBL began its operation with SCS technology but through years it has
evolved various other solar technologies aiming to light up the households in the rural communities.
Such other lighting models under LaBL are:
Solar Micro Grid through which low voltage electricity is distributed over a short distance from the
battery banks for 4 hours every night to power the household/shop lights;
9
