Village-managed solar power plant being set up in West Bengal

A solar power station managed by villagers is being set up in the Rajat Jubilee village in Sunderban area of West Bengal.

It is being governed by a group of council members who take the decisions regarding its maintenance.

This is being set up by World Wide Fund for Nature, in collaboration with the Centre for Appropriate Technology Incorporated and Projects Australia.

"Sustaining these power stations in the remote locations without grid connectivity is quite challenging. CAT, Projects Australia, and WWF India, collaborated and Project Australia tapped into the funds that were made available by the Australian government under the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development Mechanism. It took us about 13 months to work out the details with the community," said WWF official Anurag Danda.

Currently, there are a total of 57 consumers and solar energy is used to light up 10 streetlights and 3 community building, and everybody still gets 200 watts of power per minute.

The batteries are kept in the power station and are recharged every evening on the payment of monthly rental of Rs.125. Danda added that the villagers were trained to operate thesystem.

The project has become a role model for other villages that reel under severe power crisis.