Green Energy

India, a rapidly emerging economy with the world's second largest population, is facing a surging energy demand. Its rural Base of the Pyramid (BoP) consists of 114 million households, representing 76 percent of India's rural residents and almost 60 percent of the country's total population . Despite their low income, these households constitute a significant consumer market for the energy services and products required to provide daily necessities such as cooking and lighting. Using the most recent available expenditure data (2004/2005), we estimated that India's rural BoP consumers spent INR 224 billion (US$4.86 billion) per year on their energy needs. In 2005, approximately 45 percent of India's rural BoP households still did not have reliable access to electricity and relied on kerosene for lighting, and more than 85 percent of rural BoP households mostly used conventional free or inexpensive sources of fuel, such as firewood and dung, for cooking. These fuel sources, however, are not only harmful to user's health4 but also contribute to pollution and environmental degradation. A growing number of Indian companies see a market opportunity in providing rural BoP households with access to alternative cooking and electricity solutions and consequently are developing clean energy products and services for this market.

"Clean energy" refers to products and services that produce energy from renewable resources and emit fewer greenhouse gas emissions than does energy from conventional fuel sources. The lack of a reliable supply of power from the electricity grid and the availability of free and inexpensive fuels, such as wood and kerosene, are key influences on this market. In this report, we focus on two areas in this growing, high-potential market: clean energy electricity systems and clean energy cooking and light products. We examined a representative selection of companies selling solar lanterns, solar home systems, energy-efficient cookstoves, and electricity generated from decentralized sources, including small hydro power plants and biomass gasifier systems

Gender equitable energy interventions

Women are the primary energy managers in households and communities, this intervention involving women in the various steps of the energy value chain can expand both the scale and the quality of sustainable energy initiatives. Women's involvement in the design of sustainable energy solutions, for instance, can help to ensure that solutions are tailored to women's needs, and women's engagement in distribution and marketing can help to encourage the use of sustainable energy services by providing other women with comfortable spaces within which to learn about technologies and discuss their particular concerns. it has been shown that taking women's needs into account as a key variable in energy interventions makes it more likely that energy will have a significant impact on household and community poverty and on gender equality. Thus where energy interventions address women's equal participation, the potential for benefits is much higher for all.

SAFE green energy impact

1. Reduction in infections and water borne diseases by 87% in the community, rendering a cost cut of 35% on average in medical expenses.
2. Equitable access to water energy and sanitation to above 12,000 beneficiaries at the bottom of the economic pyramid and 24X7 supply of drinking water to nearly 2000 slum households in a year.
3. 4327 women mainstreamed in WASH program through financial inclusion and micro insurance coverage with capacity building for 650 women for alternative livelihood.
4. Avoidance of emission equivalent to 3078MT of CO2eq by using new energy, water budgeting and solid waste management.
5. 97% community concurrence in sustainable use and wise governance on water and energy, as evidenced from attitude scaling survey.