SolarXTRA • news digest
Norway’s PM visits India solar project - Feb 8, 2010
The Norwegian Prime Minister, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, has made a
visit to Rampura in Uttar Pradesh, the first village to get a Community
Solar Power Plant by Scatec Solar. The visit comes as the company,
together with Indian and Norwegian governments, is about to launch
the scaling-up of the solar energy project for rural electrification in
India. Indian and Norwegian governments in partnership with Scatec
Solar will jointly finance the expansion from two to 32 villages,
impacting approximately 1800 families.
‘With technology from Norway and sun from India, this project
.com
proves that private companies, government organisations and rural
communities can work together to achieve sustainable development,’ says Prime Minister Stoltenberg.
He is in India to have talks with the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh and to attend the Delhi Sustainable
Development Summit where he will deliver a keynote address. He took the opportunity to visit Rampura to examine
the opportunities solar energy represents in bringing climate friendly power to areas that currently have no access to
electricity.
-management
In 2008 Scatec Solar took the initiative to develop a sustainable and scalable model for off-grid solar systems in rural
-pv areas. After a successful implementation of solar systems in two villages, Rampura and Gopalpura respectively,
another 30 villages in India will now have Community Solar Power Plants (CSPPs) installed. The project target is to
install approximately 300 kWp in 30 villages not currently connected to the electricity grid. In total this will have an
.
solar
impact on approximately 1800 families.
www
‘Our intention with the two pilot projects was to demonstrate that decentralized solar PV is a viable solution for rural
electrification. The support from the Norwegian and Indian governments is confirmation that given the right approach
46
and the right partnerships, solar PV provides significant benefits for rural development,” says Alf Bjørseth, founder and
board member in Scatec Solar, host and guide for the Prime Minister in Rampura. .
After the implementation of the two pilots fully financed by Scatec Solar, the company was invited by the Norwegian
and Indian governments to expand the project with another 30 villages. This public-private-people partnership
is co-financed by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) 63%, the Indian Ministry of New
and Renewable Energy (MNRE) 30% and Scatec Solar for 7% of the total project costs. Indian Renewal Energy
Development Agency (IREDA) will take care of the project monitoring.
‘With the expansion of the project, our ambition is to develop business models and financial vehicles to ensure a roll-
out of village plants on a large scale,’ says Bjørseth, who is currently in Delhi in connection with the Delhi Sustainable
Development Summit (DSDS), where he will give an intervention on 5 February.
Commercial aspects are considered throughout the project. Examples of activities are silk reeling, flour mills,
horticulture, butter churner and drip irrigation. To increase the local involvement and to assure that local interests are
taken into account, the project engages five non-governmental organizations (NGOs), namely Pradan, Haritika, Srijan,
Development Alternatives and Ledeg. The NGOs act as door openers into the project villages, and work to mobilize
the villagers and analyze the needs of the community. The NGOs work with the villagers to promote the development
of income generating activities which may take advantage of the arrival of electricity to the village.
An important outcome of this project is to make electrification of villages result in increased income generation and
economic development in the villages, which also will ensure the sustainability of the project. This consists of a robust
business model that is based on a local revenue scheme that is sustainable and easily replicable. The electricity tariffs
are based on what villagers currently pay for different sources of energy, such as kerosene and diesel. Another major
outcome of the project is the establishment of a Financial Advisory Group, whose mandate is to develop a new and
innovative financial incentive scheme which may spur a rapid roll-out of CSPPs on a significant scale. The project
villages are situated in four different states, namely, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu and
Kashmir.
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61