Solar xChange: Workshop on 'Village Scale Solar Power Supply Models'
TERI in association with the University of Oslo organized a "Workshop on Village Scale Solar Power Supply Models" under the ongoing project 'Solar xChange' on April 21, 2015 at TERI Southern Regional Centre, Bengaluru. The workshop witnessed a rich gathering of around 40 delegates from across different countries covering Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Norway, Germany, and the UK. The delegates included researchers, academics, micro grid operators to practitioners and NGOs.
The main objective of the Solar xChange research project, lasting from 2013 to 2016, is to assess experiences with different models for village-scale solar power supply systems in the Global South, explore their role in adaptation to climate change, and draw lessons for their wider dissemination, provide new, real world examples and initiate up-scaling processes and knowledge exchange. The project aims to actively transfer, "translate" and build on insights between investigated cases, actors, and countries and apply the knowledge in pilot projects implemented by the project team.
The workshop was structured in two sessions: Presentations followed by views from discussants and a panel discussion. The workshop started with Dr Akanksha Chaurey, CEO, IT Power, sharing the experiences and framework conditions for village scale solar power systems with examples from India and Ghana. Ms Kirsten Ulsrud from the University of Oslo, coordinating the Solar xChange project, shared the project objectives, its activities, and the experiences and learning from the project so far. Eng. Henry Gichungi, Former Deputy Manager, Off-grid Power Stations, Kenya Power, shared the experiences of implementing off-grid projects by Kenya Power. Thereafter, the panel discussed the experience of different models in different geographical contexts, future role of village-level models, and other off-grid solar power models including lessons for upscaling processes and long-term sustainability and complementarity of off-grid and grid connected projects.