Ideate- Problem Statement

Over 1.2 billion people - 20% of the world's population - are still without access to electricity worldwide,
almost all of whom live in developing countries. This includes about 550 million in Africa, and over 400
million in India. In India, most of these populations are located in remote locations where extension of
electricity grid supply may not be technically as well as economically feasible. Furthermore,
electrification of such villages through grid supply might not be practically feasible due to the rising gap
between demand and supply of electricity in India. India is likely to face upto 5.1% of Power shrtage in
this fiscal year. Add to it the lurking problems of coal shortage in the power plants. Renewable based
distributed power generation systems may provide solution to this problem. Few of the prominent
system include biomass gasifiers, solar PV, small hydro systems and small wind turbine. If we focus on
the rural sector, installation of such system in remote location is not difficult and there have been
several such installations with support from regulatory agencies. However, most of such installations
have not been able to perform against the expectations and had to be shut down. The main challenges
in making such initiatives sustainable are availability of, technological issues, man power, social issues,
capacity to pay and a viable business model etc.
Lack of rural electrification is impeding the economic and social growth in our country. It is high time we
look for solutions to make such renewable based installations sustainable.