Productive Energy Use in India (Part 1) with Abhishek Jain (CEEW)

Distributing Solar

We speak with Abhishek Jain from the Council for Energy Environment and Water in India. We discuss energy access, productive energy use, solar water pumps, and the electricity sector in India.

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Show notes:

(1:40) Introduction to CEEW, the Council on Energy Environment and Water - a not-for-profit think tank. Abhishek's focus on energy access, productive livelihoods, and food systems

(6:00) Their work in international topics, outside of India

(7:45) India's energy landscape and the significant progress in recent years: estimated 97% electrification rate in India; improving availability (~21 hours/day) and the ongoing need for reliability

(10:45) Most electrification conducted by the national, government-led efforts; ~0.5% of population received electricity from decentralised energy solutions

(12:45) Powering Livelihoods program, focused on productive energy use and solar powered solutions, in partnership with Villgro; working with existing enterprises to expand their deployment (focused on agribusiness and textiles); collecting data to provide evidence for the viability of the sector

(16:30) The types of solutions they work with: solar water pumps, cold storage and biomass, drying machines, sorting machines, processing machines, expelling machines; spinning machines, solar looms etc. The pipeline of solar powered productive energy use appliances

(21:00) Supporting the enterprises to adapt to a post-COVID environment; engaging with government agencies and financial players

(23:30) The focus on gender within their work: ensuring greater gender inclusivity in their program

(25:00) Existing limited irrigation in agriculture; the diversity in groundwater health across India - some areas are facing water stress, but other areas have the potential to improve their use of water resources

(28:40) CEEW's tool to assess whether water pumps should be used in a specific areas, and what additional technologies should be deployed alongside water pumps

(31:00) Dual electricity distribution network: one for agriculture and water pumps, one for household use

(33:00) Water-as-a-Service solutions and business models