In just over a year, MGP<\/a> has connected more than 3,500 customers to solar power mini-grids at a village level. Anna da Costa visited Sitapur district to see how new energy services have changed the lives of people living far away from the straining national power grid.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The fading light begins to slope and redden as evening approaches in Sitapur district, north-central Uttar Pradesh. As you journey here from the bustling city of Lucknow, you travel not only across space but time, too, into a medieval world of smoking wood fires, trundling bullock carts and mud-walled, straw-topped huts. There is little electricity here, and almost no access to clean water or basic sanitation. The summers are scorching and the winters frigid yet at this time of year, just after the rains, a cool breeze tousles the teeming grasses blissfully. Even this heavenly vision, though, veils the challenges that were brought to the region by heavy monsoon rains this season, which swelled the Ghaghara river\u2019s banks to bursting point, inundating more than seventy villages and multiple croplands.<\/p>\n \u00a0 Solar solutions<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n Village by village, MGP are building a network of low cost solar micro-grids that provide two LED lights and a mobile charging point to all paying households at a cost of 25 rupees [US$0.5] per week. That is cheaper than the equivalent kerosene and mobile charging costs from the nearest town, which can be almost double across a month. Solar power, as a \u201csmokeless\u201d source of light, comes with added benefits to customer health.<\/p>\n Installing a micro-grid is a grand event in the village and everyone gets involved. Here in the village of Damdampurawa, the team maps the village house by house beneath the scorching mid-day sun, working out where to place each wire so as to connect customers to the power source. Some householders joined in while others looked on, smoking a chillum, calling out orders, or watching the curious proceedings wide-eyed.<\/p>\n MGP maintains responsibility for these grids after they are installed. The only price the customers pay is for the connection and the energy itself, which they are provided with for seven hours each night. \u201cThis is an essential part of our model\u201d, says Sandeep Pandey, their operations manager. \u201cIt\u2019s designed not to place high price burdens on our customers, who are amongst India\u2019s poorest\u201d.<\/p>\n Poor quality materials can flaw a grid from the start and have proved a problem for the company in the past. Here, Sandeep, Nikhil and Raj Kamal, members of the MGP team, test the wires that they plan to lay in the village of Damdampurawa to make sure they are working well.<\/p>\n The roof of a sturdy, brick walled home in each village is always chosen as the site for the panels and the battery. Azaz, one of the company\u2019s first electricians to be recruited from the local district block of Reusa, installs the panels in a southerly direction to capture as much sunlight as possible. A pair of panels is usually enough to serve up to 50 households (the average size of a village in this area), but the typical uptake in any one place is closer to 25 \u2013 about half of the village.<\/p>\n When a system is installed, each light can be seen as a small square LED, placed wherever the customers want it in their house. Saroj Kumari (left) and Kavita (right) stand next to one of their new lights, which has been placed on the outside wall to illuminate their front porch.<\/p>\n Once the systems are in place, all that remains is to wait for nightfall. The lights are designed to switch on at a time the villagers choose, which is normally just as night approaches. Here, in the village of Sewanpurawa, a crowd gathered in the settling dusk. All of a sudden, the village became alight with bright glimmers, in kitchens, bedrooms and porches, in front of small shops and beneath awnings.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u201cEveryone gets busy with their work thanks to the good, bright light. We\u2019re saving our environment with these lights, and there\u2019s no pollution in our homes either,\u201d says Prem Kumar Rastogi, a farmer from the village of Dalpatpur.<\/p>\n The ability to regularly charge phones also allows villagers to be connected, share information and ideas, and even watch films and listen to music. Here, Santosh Kumar, a farmer from the village of Baldipurawa, sat with his niece on their newly-lit porch. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to have light while we cook and eat\u201d, he told us. \u201cNow we can actually see our food, and if there are insects or other things falling in it\u201d.<\/p>\n \u00a0 Sushil Kumar and Sushila Devi, also from the village of Bidthauli, are now able to keep their shop open late into the evening. \u201cThese days, I can see my customers as they come and go\u201d, said Sushil Kumar. \u201cThe children are studying more now, and we can charge our mobile phones in less time as we don\u2019t have to visit the town to do so\u201d.<\/p>\n Kushuma, from the village of Sewanpurawa uses her lights to cook into the evening. \u201cWe\u2019ve had the lights for a month now, and get all kinds of benefits\u201d, Kushuma told us, shyly. \u201cWe can cook beneath the light and see our food as we eat. I feel safer as well\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kallu Ram, a doctor from the village of Bidthauli now uses his lights to keep his medical store open late into the night, so he need not rely on kerosene or diesel to provide power after dark.<\/p>\n In the village of Sewanpurawa, children use the lights to continue their studies after dark. Parents also feel a sense of relief, as there is less danger of the children coming to harm in the darkness.<\/p>\n MGP is seeking to expand its work further. \u201cIt was always crucial for us that the model was sustainable across multiple levels: economic, environmental and social. Scale is a part of this\u201d, says Nikhil Jaisinghani, one of MGP\u2019s co-founders. \u201cWe are constantly keeping an eye on how to make sure that is the case\u2026trying, testing, failing and evolving to suit the needs of our customers as best we can\u201d.<\/p>\n In the future, they also hope to diversify the services offered to MGP\u2019s newly created network, says Brian Shaad, the other of MGP\u2019s co-founders. \u201cWe hope this will include services such as education, awareness raising around sanitation and healthcare, entertainment, and improved access to knowledge and technologies for farming\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"picture](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/picture-1-Girl-Atop-Buffalo1.jpg\")
<\/a> Remote villages beyond the grid<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-2-solar-solutions2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-3-A-Village-Affair.jpg\")
<\/a>A village affair: building the grids<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-4-Checking-the-Equipment.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0Checking the equipment<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-5-Fitting-the-Panels.jpg\")
<\/a>Fitting the panels<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-7-Happy-customers.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0Happy customers<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-8-Waiting-for-Nightfall.jpg\")
<\/a>Waiting for nightfall<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-9-Small-Changes-Big-Impacts.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0 Small changes, big impacts<\/b><\/p>\n
\nNew businesses are starting to emerge amongst the customers too, says Pandey. \u201cIn one village, customers are using the light to make saris by night, in another entrepreneurs have started crude manufacturing of eye glasses, and one man now has a night business making plastic table cloths\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-10-Late-night-shopping.jpg\")
<\/a>Late night shopping<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-11-Night-time-cooking.jpg\")
<\/a>Night time cooking<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-13-Doctors-store.jpg\")
<\/a>The medical store<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-14-Study-time.jpg\")
<\/a>Study time<\/b><\/p>\n![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-15-An-Evolving-Model.jpg\")
<\/a>Making the company sustainable<\/b><\/p>\n
![\"Pic](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Pic-16-A-brighter-future.jpg\")
<\/a>A brighter future<\/b><\/p>\n