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Dhanagarwadi is a village with 30 households (280 population, Male 160, Female 120), located in Belavatti gram panchayat, Belagavi Taluka and District in the state of Karnataka, India (15.79970973, 74.27382404). The community primarily consists of farmers who grow one crop a year and work as daily labourers for the rest of the year. The village, being in Tilari forest reserve is not connected to the national grid, forcing its residents to live in darkness and in fear of wild animals.The Rotary club of Belgaum is proposing to electrify this village using a state-of-the-art smart microgrid technology.
The smart microgrid will provide reliable, three phase, clean (solar) power to households and provide the basic electrical infrastructure for sustainable irrigation and micro-enterprises.
It will leapfrog the community from Tier 0 to Tier 4 level of energy access as defined by the World Bank[1]. The beneficiaries will get reliable power for their domestic and productive loads, which will lead to a considerable improvement in their quality of life and socio-economic status.
PROJECT GOALS
The project aims to achieve the following goals
Establish a reliable, sustainable, clean and affordable energy supply system to 30 households in the village, to power their domestic loads and future energy enabled micro-enterprises
Improve quality of life of 280 inhabitants living in the village
Provide safety from wild animals through street lights
Improve socio-economic status of 280 inhabitants
Successfully deploy business models for project sustainability
BACKGROUND AND PORTFOLIO
Dhangarwadi village is surrounded by Tilari reserve forest and shares its border with Maharashtra. The village is habited for more than 70 years and is cut-off from the national grid. Most villagers use the forest land for agriculture during rainy season, and rest of the year they work as labourers. They cultivate only one crop a year for their self-consumption in approximately 10 acres of land. The village used to get drinking water through a 5hp diesel pump installed at a river stream located at a distance of 1.5km. The pump and pipeline were installed a few years back. However, the pump is non-functional since last three years. The village has a primary school (up till class 5) post which they travel to nearby towns to get higher education. The Rotary team is in touch with the community directly and has conducted a preliminary survey. The community has requested for a reliable source of electricity for their households to begin with, and later for agriculture and future microenterprises.
SUSTAINABILITY PLAN
The project will be deployed keeping long term sustainability in mind. During the implementation, most labor requirements for commissioning will be sourced from the community. This approach helps us to train the community and also will provide them some income during the implementation. The skills gained during the installation will open many opportunities for them. Further, all necessary permissions and approvals will be taken from the forest department and other stakeholders.
Tariff structure will be decided based upon the ability, willingness to pay and operations and maintenance costs incurred. The tariffs collected will be deposited in the village energy committee's account and this money will be used to maintain the system.
PROPOSED INTERVENTION
● Generation capacity planned:20kWp
● Total annual generation: Approximately 24,000 kWh per year
● Total GHG reduction: 29tCO2/year
● Total households to be connected: 30
● Streetlights to be installed: 15
EXPECTED IMPACT
● Improve quality of life of by providing clean and sustainable energy to 30 households (280 people)
● Streetlights to provide safety from wild animals
● Enhancement in study hours of children due to availability of light in the night
● Women can cook and work late evening
● Support, establish and sustain energy enabled micro-enterprises
● Provide farmer families with sustainable power for irrigation, in future
● Showcase an innovative financial model to sustain remote rural microgrids and develop smart and self-sustainable villages
● Create employment during installation (10 people) and post installation through energy enabled microenterprises
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