Barapitha, a tribal hamlet in Odisha is 100% Solar-Powered. What A Great Example For Other Villages!!!!!
Here, however, is one truly worth story of being happy and proud about.
Barapitha, a tribal hamlet on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar has unshackled itself from darkness and became the first Solar village of Odisha.
The Rs 7 lakh project co-funded by ECCO Electronics and Jakson Group, has put individual solar units in each of the 61 households, along with a central 1 kilowatt (kW) unit that can power 8 street lamps.
After waiting for electricity for several years, lives of the residents of Baripatha, a tribal village in Odisha, changed for the better on Oct. 2, 2015. On this day, Baripatha became the first village in the state to be completely powered by solar energy.
Baripatha is located about 25 km southwest of Bhubaneswar. The village has 61 households, and a population of about 350 people.
The project cost Rs. 7 lakh and was co-funded by the solar products manufacturer, ECCO Electronics, and the power solutions provider, Jackson Group.
The project did not just provide electricity for the village, but also the mandate to a better life and ambition.
Now, the village roads and schools will have perennial solar lighting. The Village Community Centre has been provided with an LED TV, with a set-top box which runs on solar power.
“We requested companies such as Nalco, Ecco Solar and Jackson Solar to help us with the solar project for the village…This model can be replicated all over Odisha to provide power to its nearly 3,900 villages,” senior IPS officer Joydeep Nayak, who is the driving force behind this initiative, told The Times of India.
Under this project, individual solar units with two solar home-lighting systems, which also have the facility of charging mobile phones and other devices, have been installed for each of the 61 households in the village.
This is accompanied by a central one-kilowatt unit for the entire village that will be used to power the eight street lamps along with a LED television set and TV set-top box that have been provided to the villagers and have been installed in their community centre.
The unit can also operate a one-horsepower irrigation pump.
But that leads to many problems like the exposed cables being tapped by villagers. In this case, some households draw more power than their share, which in turn causes the central line to trip because of overload. Thus, to avoid such issues, individual units have been set up for each household.
The entire solar project is low cost, low maintenance and community owned.
The only maintenance needed now is the regular cleaning of panels and ensuring that water levels of batteries for the central unit are at the required mark. According to ECCO CEO, Vivek Bihani, the whole village was involved in the planning and execution of the project. “Village mukhia Narayan Hisa along with a local ITI diploma holder, Epil Kumar Singh, are responsible for the maintenance,” he informed.
The project was inaugurated on Friday by the chairman and managing director of National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), Tapan Kumar Chand. He, along with the other state officials, distributed the two lighting systems to each household..
Millions still live without electricity in India. Barapitha showed a way forward for thousands of other villages everywhere, which have been left behind.
-----HURRY UP------
FRIENDS-- COME FORWARD & DO THE SAME FOR YOUR VILLAGES, TOWNS & CITIES!!!!!
Ref: http://www.thebetterindia.com/35711/baripatha-solar-powered-village-in-odisha/
This is great news..
ReplyDeleteI always used to wonder as to why solar power is not being used in India..when we have plenty of it.
In Hawai during my visit there I have seen each house there having their own set of solar panels installed othe roofs.
Then why not in India..