Five microgrids were up and running on the Sundarbans’ Satjelia Island as of March, serving a total of 487 households and 25 shops.įive microgrids were up and running on the Sundarbans’ Satjelia Island as of March Working with residents, local communities, the project partners connected 69 village households and 25 shops to an initial, solar PV-energy storage, DC microgrid during the project’s first phase, which began in January 2016. “Transporting all the equipment and components required was probably our biggest challenge.” Schneider Electric and WWF-India faced similar logistical challenges when building the village microgrids, Kapoor said in an interview. Recharging batteries for home use is quite a task for villagers, said Anurag Kapoor, general manager, CSR, Schneider Electric, India.ĭoing so typically entails hiking and traveling by boat to reach the nearest power grid access point, rail or road head. Living in small, remote and isolated communities, Sundarbans’ villagers combine their rudimentary energy sources with DC batteries. Avoiding conflict between humans and wildlife Lack of lighting also raises the potential for conflict between villagers and wildlife.įor more than 500 Sundarbans’ village households, along with local businesses and institutions, these pressures are alleviated for the first time with reliable, safe electricity and energy-efficient LED household and street lighting as a result of Project Sahasra Jyoti, which WWF-India carried out in partnership with Schneider Electric India Foundation, Bank of America and local communities. That results in deforestation, which degrades and fragments the forests, and causes indoor and outdoor pollution. Home to 4.5 million people, the region depends on kerosene, candles and forest biomass for cooking and lighting. Modern, environmentally friendly energy is available to villagers in the Indian Sundarbans - the world’s largest, remaining mangrove forest ecosystem - thanks to village microgrids deployed as a result of WWF-India’s Project Sahasra Jyoti.
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