yes, even with the scepticism and difficulty in scaling up, this is making a difference. i am all for small-scale efforts as opposed to grand white elephants like nukular which are mostly useful for siphoning off cash.
and it's good to give publicity to people like these.
2 comments:
There is no grid in the villages Husk Power Systems supply power to. They effectively charge more than Rs. 10 per unit to poor villagers. Grid power should cost about Rs. 3. They also benefit from capital subsidies on the gasifiers and engines. To me this is a case of profiteering in the absence of real infrastructure; very similar to residents of housing societies being forced to pay for private water tankers because piped water supply is insufficient.
It is more energy efficient to use biomass, including rice husk as co-firing fuel in conventional thermal power stations as the equipment is about twice as efficient. The only economically worthwhile use of rice husk is acually in rice mills to meet their own power and steam requirements. It is economically viable because of the avoided cost of using diesel.
I've said this a number of times before on this blog. It pisses me off no end that taxpayer money is wasted on crappy decentralized/pilot projects in biomass and solar power. Unfortunately renewable energy is a religion.
your points are valid. but the poor always pay more for everything than the rich do (eg. gas costs more in poor ghetto areas than in rich areas in the US -- this is easily verified. also food costs more in inner-city neighborhoods).
electricity is so important to the poor that they will go to great lengths for it -- for instance, they may travel 50 miles to be able to charge their cellphones. compared to that, paying more for semi-reliable (locally controlled) electricity may be a good trade-off. they will also buy small-scale solar energy systems because the alternative -- no electricity -- has essentially infinite cost. they may be willing to pay rs. 10 out of their own pockets. the state is not willing to extend the grid to them because the money is stolen by politicians.
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