Distributed Solar, LED Lighting Key Government Plan to Electrify Homes in India

More than 40 million households - about a quarter of all homes in the country - are yet to be electrified and about 300 million of India’s 1.3 billion people are still not hooked up to the grid. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has a plan to change that, according to reports on a number of news sites.

Modi has launched a $2.5 billion project to electrify all the country’s households by the end of next year.

India’s Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd. (REC) has been appointed to implement the plan throughout the country, in both rural and urban settings, using solar, storage and LED lighting as key technologies.

According to the website PV-Tech the plan follows an existing rural electrification program to electrify every village in India, but that earlier plan did not include the kinds technological solutions in the new program, particularly distributed solar.

Solar power packs of 200-300W will be added with battery banks to un-electrified homes – including in remote and hard to access regions – along with five LED lights, a DC fan and a DC power plug. This will also come with repair and maintenance for five years.

The project will be mostly funded by the federal government. “No fee will be charged for electricity connection in households of poor citizens,” Modi said at an event where he launched the project, according to Reuters.

Further reading: 

India to electrify every home by December 2018 using solar, storage and LEDs (PV-tech)

India unveils $2.5 billion plan to electrify all households by end 2018 (Reuters)

Modi Will Spend $2.5 Billion on Pledge to Electrify Every Home (Bloomberg)