Challenge
200 million Indians lack access to electricity
Strategy
Bringing solar lighting, a clean and affordable solution to rural India
Impact
165,000+ people benefited 720 villages received solar electrification
Overview
World Bank figures show that approximately 200 million people in India lack access to electricity. These people rely on kerosene and other fuels to light up their homes. However, using these fuels is hazardous to health and environment. Moreover, inadequate lighting makes it hard for children to study and makes medical aid inaccessible at night.
In an effort to provide a clean and affordable lighting solution to rural India, our “Light a Home” project was born. Started in 2012, the project provides high-quality and cost-effective solar lanterns, home-lighting systems and solar cookers across India. With this initiative, we have reached hard-to-access villages like Anjaw in Arunachal Pradesh, which can only be reached by foot, and river islands in Assam. Today, we have brought solar energybased lighting solutions to the more than 90,000 people in remote locations and have provided employment opportunities to many among them.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Develop rural India
Bring solar lighting, sanitation facilities, strong local governance and much more
Almost 821 households do not possess any electricity in BR ranges and we have decided to light them. I am grateful to the Art of Living organization for the solar lamps. It’s a miracle for us."
- Ivy Ku, Art of Living faculty, Taiwan
Strategy
Our strategy includes:
Our strategy includes: Through ‘Light a Home’, we distribute solar lanterns and individual ‘home lighting systems’ in non-electrified villages of India. We setup ‘Solar Centre Hubs’ across rural India to provide last mile connectivity of high-quality and cost effective solar lanterns, solar home lighting systems, solar cookers & battery charging stations.
Setting up solar microgrids: We build, own, and operate microgrids in rural belts of India, creating off-grid model villages, with access to quality lighting solutions. Our strategy is to design and develop a service-specific microgrid dedicated to providing household lighting and mobile phone charging. The design requires 90% less solar power generation capacity per customer compared to traditional solar powered microgrids.
Creating renewable energy hubs, rural engineers and entrepreneurs: We train unemployed youth in operations, maintenance, assembling, repairing, and installation of renewable energy products like solar systems, solar irrigation pumps and biogas units. Many rural youth who receive training in solar systems in our skill development centers become solar entrepreneurs in their areas.
Our three-step approach:
Last-mile energy access initiative
Providing solar lighting in hard-to-access areas
Setting up solar microgrids
with improved efficiency
Creating solar engineers
and entrepreneurs
Through 'Light A Home' project, The Art of Living has brought solar lighting to 90,000 individuals in remote locations in India.
Impact
165,000 + people
benefited
720 villages
solar electrified
152 schools
electrified
310 women entrepreneurs
trained in solar systems
4,100 youth leaders
trained as renewable energy technicians
Inspiration from the community
STORIES
A remote village in Assam lights up
“This shall make the villagers proud owners with electricity options similar to those available to their brethren in the other cities, in spite of living in the remotest of places in the farthest lands of Assam. The children shall have light to study after their school hours, thus building their dreams for a brighter tomorrow.”
What drove this professor to help electrify a village
“Working for electrifying Tengabari village is quite challenging and adventurous for me as a wife, as a professor and a mother of a teenage daughter. At the end we succeeded and from now onwards I am going to work for other development activities in this village.”
Featured
Children of the Bamboo sing a new tune
With 821 homes lit, Karnataka’s Soliga tribe welcomes electricity...
The Art of Living inaugurates Skills Training Center to electrify India with solar power
Bangalore: The Art of Living's Sri Sri Kaushal Vikas Kendra for...
Even after 44 years of statehood, 345 villages in Meghalaya still reels under darkness
Shillong: Even after 44 years of statehood, there are some villages...
Solar power warriors help light up worst-hit areas in Kerala
One of the aftermaths of the Kerala floods, which ransacked the...
Contact Us
info@projects.artofliving.org+91 80 67433684
