Solar Ujra Through Localization for Sustainability

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= "aims to directly impact the livelihood and well-being of rural villagers by replacing the use of kerosene with solar lamps. The solar lamps were designed based on open hardware".

URL = http://www.soulsiitb.in/


Description

Jose Ramos:

The Solar Ujra Through Localization for Sustainability project (SoULS) is a project initiated by the Indian Institute of technology around 2013 / 2014. The project addresses the need for rural Indian villagers to have light at night, which can help kids study and creates more amenable households. Many rural Indian villagers use kerosene lamps to light their homes. However kerosene is dirty and associated with health problems, nor is it cheap, as many villagers are not even able to afford it consistently.

The SoULS project aimed to directly impact the livelihood and well-being of rural villagers by replacing the use of kerosene with solar lamps. The solar lamps were designed based on open hardware, which allowed the project to reduce the cost of the lamps. Importantly, solar lamp repair centers were established to service the villages that receive the lamps. Locals were trained in the repair of the lamps, and a service model was developed whereby they would earn sufficient income from the ongoing servicing. Solar lamps end up being cheaper overall villagers than running kerosene lamps. A number of new jobs are created in repair centers.


The project also adheres to open hardware principles:

“With an aim to decentralize the diffusion of the solar technology, IIT Bombay will release the designs of all the solar products in the public domain. The open source hardware will make these products available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware’s source, the design from which it is made, is available in the preferred format. People can make modifications to these designs to cater to the needs of the people in their vicinity. Rightnow, the solar study lamps distributed under the 70 lakh solar study lamp scheme and the Million SoUL Program have been made available in the public domain.”

On top of this, the project established a cooperative for the production of solar panels, which would drive the supply of new panels to service existing and new regions of the scheme, and which benefited from a dedicated market.

“Dungarpur Renewable Energy Technologies Pvt. Limited (DURGA Energy) is a one of its own kind module manufacturing plant completely owned and operated by local tribal women of Dungarpur District, Rajasthan. The women from the self-help group formed under the four clusters of Antri, Biladi, Jhonthri and Punali co-jointly own the company. The company is equipped to make all standard as well as custom-designed solar panels raging for 1Wp to 330Wp modules.”

The project has demonstrated strong benefits such as increased health, increased educational performance by children in the villages with the lamps, and this is not to mention the reduction in carbon emissions from the phasing out of kerosene.

This project shows how an anchor institution can form the basis of the development of an ecosystem which is able to recirculate value in virtuous ways. It is what we might call a “pop-up political economy”, because for a moment it is able to interrupt the relentless logic of neoliberal capital and create an alternative economy.

The example points to the crux of the challenge that we face if want to create a world in which open designs potentiate local livelihoods." (https://medium.com/@joseramos_30450/cosmo-localism-tech-trend-post-capitalist-commons-transition-or-something-else-4dc0202dd732)


Characteristics

Open Hardware Aspects

"With an aim to decentralize the diffusion of the solar technology, IIT Bombay will release the designs of all the solar products in the public domain. The open source hardware will make these products available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design. The hardware's source, the design from which it is made, is available in the preferred format. People can make modifications to these designs to cater to the needs of the people in their vicinity. Product details and designs can be seen and downloaded from OpensourceHardware. Also, the solar study lamps distributed under the 70 lakh solar study lamp scheme and the Million SoUL Program have been made available in the public domain." (http://www.soulsiitb.in/open-hardware.php)


Example