Thursday, August 14, 2014: Recently, former chief minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, paid a visit to Dharnai in Jehanabad district. Dharnai is India’s first fully solar power-backed village. Kumar appreciated Greenpeace’s efforts in setting up the micro-grid in the village.
The unique energy model delighted Kumar and he viewed it as a necessary step in order to ensure rural electrification of the state. Now homes, shops, schools and street-lights of the village are getting powered by the micro-grid. At a public event, which gathered around 2,000 people in Dharnai on 4 August, Kumar said, “Solar energy is the only solution and I praise and appreciate Greenpeace for accepting the challenge in successfully installing this everlasting viable solution model.”
On 16 May 2012, during his tenure of the chief minister post, Kumar advised that Greenpeace should take an initiative to create a pilot project for setting up a clean energy micro-grid. Greenpeace India’s senior campaigner for renewable energy, Manish Ram said, “Billion units of electricity are produced in this country everyday but it never reaches the villages and towns of poor states like Bihar because they are not connected to the country’s energy infrastructure or the national grid.” This energy partiality required to be stopped at the soonest possible and the non-profit-organisation urged the state government to minimise complete dependence on the Central power supply. They suggested that electricity needs to be generated at smaller scales, at village levels which will create cleaner energy.
Secretary of Asian Development Research Institute, Shaibal Gupta, was also present at the function, and he said, “It is very encouraging to see that Greenpeace has successfully demonstrated the viability of renewable energy by setting up a micro-grid that provides clean power to an entire village. This will definitely play a vital role in transforming the energy sector of Bihar.” This Dharnai-based 100kW micro-grid supplies electricity throughout the day and the beneficiaries include 450 homes, 50 commercial places, 60 street-lights, two schools, one health centre, one Kisan Training Centre and 10 solar irrigation pumps.
Greenpeace views Bihar as one of the most resourceful states in India, thanks to their vast fertile lands and a large labour force. Bihar has all the qualities to become the mainland for India’s agricultural and industrial growth. But the only problem, which blocks the state’s growth is lack of electricity. Now with the latest visit from the ex-chief minister the state government proves its dedication towards adopting more solar power models, which can help Bihar come out of their electricity crisis. Kumar said more, “We must appreciate Greenpeace’s effort to safeguard our environment. We are destroying our environment and we usually are unaware about it… Solar is the real energy as it is non-depleting and is here to stay.”
