The Water Wheels of Time: Micro hydro Power in the Western Ghats of India
Avinash Krishnamurthy COO, Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund, www.s3idf.org avinash@s3idf.org The seeds of innovation – Farmer made pico-hydro systems “My son insisted on light at home and I experimented based on a picture of a water wheel in his text book”, Krishna Rao, a farmer in the famous Coorg coffee estate district, in the [...]
What Role for Coal? World Bank Energy Strategy and Energy Access
A little more than a year ago the World Bank’s highly controversial $3.75 Billion loan for one of the world’s largest coal plants – the 4,800 MW Medupi coal plant in South Africa – laid bare the tension surrounding coal and development. Now the World Bank’s draft Energy Strategy, a document that will guide energy [...]
India’s Entrepreneurs Drive Renewable Energy Revolution, but World Bank info Declares Coal King
Given its desire to steer climate finance decisions for the international community, the World Bank should be at the vanguard of this emerging economic reality. Instead it is India’s young entrepreneurs, who are driving an energy revolution with a fraction of the resources. Having witnessed the landscapes of extraction and persistent energy poverty that coal has delivered for 400 million rural Indians, these entrepreneurs are laying bare the false illusions of cheap coal, relying instead on renewable energy to bring rural India from darkness to light.
Piggyback or Leapfrog?
Cell Phone Towers, Community Power, and Renewable Energy for Rural Electrification By 2030 the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts there will be 1.2 billion people lacking access to electricity, which gives the world 1.2 billion reasons to get energy lending right. Getting it right means making the future of rural electrification decentralized renewable energy systems [...]
