LIGHTING A BILLION LIVES

Environment conscious people from across the globe came forward to adopt 508 villages by donating for TERI's LaBL initiative during the fourth NDTV-Toyota Greenathon on 20 May 2012. Unlike the previous years, this year Greenathon was a 12-hour event that started across the NDTV network from 9:00 a.m. onwards.   Read more...

Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) extended its support to Earth Hour 2012 by providing solar lanterns that were illuminated by NCC cadets standing in 60+ formation (the Earth Hour logo) at India Gate, New Delhi on 31 March 2012. India Gate has always been the epicentre of the Earth Hour movement in India. This year too, India Gate remained the iconic switch off in the city, as hundreds of Earth Hour supporters gathered around Amar Jawan Jyoti holding up placards and solar lanterns in support.   Read more...

With the objective of creating a pool of trained solar technicians in rural areas, a five-day training workshop was held at TERI University campus from 26-30 March 2012 to train prospective master technicians on technical aspects of solar PV and solar charging stations. Participants drawn from Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh attended the training sessions. In addition to classroom lectures, the programme included hands-on-training on solar photovoltaic, solar charging stations and lanterns, home lights, task lights and improved cook stoves. The training concluded with the evaluation of the participants through a series of written and verbal assessments.

In order to bridge the existing gap between implementation and sustenance of rural energy projects, TERI launched a new institution in Bihar on 29 December 2011, called Technology Resource Centre (TRC). TRC is a local level enterprise (under the LaBL programme) which provides after-sales service support to LaBL solar charging stations and is also authorized to market and sell LaBL solar products in the covered territory.

TERI and TERI University jointly organized a Technology Discussion Forum (TDF) on Solar Lighting on 14 November 2011. The objective of the discussion was to bring key stakeholders in the lighting sector on a common platform to collectively develop a framework for quality benchmarking of solar lighting products and to discuss key technical areas for collaborative research over the course of next three to five years.   Read more...

TERI organized a five-day long training programme, titled 'Technical training programme for solar technicians' was organized at New Delhi to sensitize participants on issues of energy and the environment and empower them as solar technicians, from 17-21 October 2011.

The programme aimed to build capacities of attendees, which comprised mainly of soldiers from Assam Rifles, serving in the border areas of North-Eastern India, to enable them to effectively implement and extend clean lighting to the region. Two of the thirty participants were LaBL captains, who have been inducted into the initiative to further community development by providing responsive after- sales support to solar charging stations.   Read more...

TERI conducted a technical training course as part of the Ministry of External Affairs supported Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme - 'Designing and implementing solar-energy based livelihood projects for rural communities.'

The course is designed as a bilateral programme with developing countries with the aim of building the capacity of organizations and individuals, enabling them to apply enhanced knowledge and skills in large-scale generation of sustainable livelihoods, utilizing solar PV and solar thermal technology.

The course, in its second year, saw full enrollment of 20 participants, comprising mostly of middle-management-level officials from various energy and renewable energy departments across 14 countries of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands. The course was held at the sprawling TERI Gram complex at Gual Pahari, National Capital Region of Delhi from 12-30 September 2011.   Read more...

TERI, with support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and its local implementation partners designed, developed and recently commissioned India's first-of-its-kind Renewable Energy based Smart Mini-Grid (SMG) system by using advanced digital and control techniques. The innovative system was commissioned by Dr. Farooq Abdullah,Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy in the presence of Sushil Kumar Shinde, Hon'ble Union Minister for Power and Dr R K Pachauri, Director-General, TERI at the RETREAT, in Gual Pahari, Gurgaon on 1 July 2011.   Read more...

TERI and the Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikaas Nigam (MPUVN) jointly organized a special event to commemorate the completion of 100 villages lit up across Madhya Pradesh under the Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) initiative in Bhopal on June 30 2011. The event also focused on the future prospects of addressing the lighting needs of the state.

To integrate the overwhelming response of student communities to LaBL, into the framework of rural energy access and channelize their energy, the initiative designed and launched its International Torchbearers Programme at TERI's Youth Unite for Voluntary Action (YUVA) meet in February 2011. The summer session of the first batch of students concluded recently with 11 volunteers being conferred the title of Torchbearers. These students performed scoping assessments and impact evaluations in more than 120 villages.   Read more...