SOLAR ENERGY
New initiatives have been taken up in emerging thematic areas including Renewable Energy & Information and Communications Technology.
Renewable Energy
The newer technologies include water ATM, Waterboxx, Talya tray, Solar lamp assembly, Micro Solar dome, Solar drying of vegetables, Solar pumping systems and Solar insect traps.
Solar energy for pumping: As solar pumping for agriculture and rural drinking water requirement are in great demand, BAIF has introduced 448 solar water-pumps with a total capacity of 1.3 MW ranging from 0.25-20 HP capacity through various projects and in convergence with on-going Government schemes.
BAIF has also installed solar lights at the household level as well as on community streets at various locations. The work also included the Million SoUL programme which aimed at localisation of solar energy through local assembly, sale and usage of solar urja lamps (SoUL), in collaboration with IIT Bombay.
Solar Dryer for dehydration of fruits and vegetables: Farmers in our project areas are encountered with compelling market price dynamics. In the absence of any suitable mechanism they are forced to sell their perishable produce at a price which can hardly cover the cost of production. Moreover, only the best quality produce receive the desired market price while the lower grades are rejected. To enable poor farmers to sell their produce at a remunerative price, 186 solar dryers have been installed at Uruli Kanchan, Jawhar and Nandurbar areas. Out of these, 125 installed at Uruli Kanchan are being operated on an enterprise mode. This post‐harvest technique which aligns with decentralised processing with focus on price hedging, livelihood and decentralised enterprise mechanism, enables poor women to adopt this activity as an additional source of income.
