Norway's PM Visits India Solar Project

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 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.

In 2008 Scatec Solar took the initiative to develop a sustainable and scalable model for off-grid solar systems in rural 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 impact on approximately 1800 families.

'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 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.

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