Field Research Report

Field Research Report

Renewable Rajasthan Solar power solutions for income generating activity in rural India

Rony Nedkov Tom Timmerman Stijn Veeger

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International Entrepreneurship & Development

2 December 2011

Introduction ‘Hello we are Tom, Stijn and Rony. We are here to do some research for our solar energy project!’

‘Hindi? Rajasthani?, Hindi language?’

‘Ok guys, nobody speaks a word of English right here. We are lost, what are we going to do?’

But then out of nowhere, on a motorcycle came Dinesh, our English speaking savior. He took us to Mr. Meena’s house and there we had the warmest welcome we have ever had. We were treated like three Maharajas; breakfast on the bed, a lot of tea and all the food we wanted. The first day in Dabla was unforgettable.

The next day we started our research. Accompanied with Dinesh we walked through Dabla for 5 days, talking with a lot of people, doing interviews and observing the current situation.

We researched the problems with the current electricity use, a investigated places around the village were the future solar system could be built and we observed the possibilities to create income generating activities. The outcomes of this research are to be found in this report. It contains all the information we will need to design a good and solid solar energy system.

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Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. ii

1 Background of Dabla ................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Current problems ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Current Management of Electricity System .................................................................................... 1 1.3 Background Research ..................................................................................................................... 2 2 Wants and Needs........................................................................................................................................ 4 2.1 The Research ................................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Identified Needs .............................................................................................................................. 5 2.3 Conclusions ..................................................................................................................................... 6 3. Solar Power Plant Load and Design ......................................................................................................... 7 3.1 Village Load.................................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 System Design and Irradiance......................................................................................................... 7 3.3 Further development ....................................................................................................................... 9 4 Possible Locations for solar plant ............................................................................................................ 10 4.1 Overview of the village ................................................................................................................. 10 4.2 Field 1 ........................................................................................................................................... 11 4.3 Field 2 ........................................................................................................................................... 12 The field needs flattening out before the solar power station can be build. ........................................ 12 4.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 13 5 Conclusion of the Field Research ............................................................................................................ 14

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1 Background of Dabla In the research, the problems were divided in three categories: social, technical and financial. Through interviewing, observing and a lot of talking with villagers the current problems around the electricity service became clear.

1.1 Current problems Social Problems like illegal electricity draining, vandalism or corruption by any person or organization weren’t there. According to every villager Dabla was a very peaceful village in a peaceful province. Everyone in Dabla wanted a good electricity system, poor, rich, power or no power. So some kind of misuse of the system was out of mind.

There was a clear difference between ‘rich and poor’ in the village. Of course being rich means not the same compared to be rich a city. Rich in Dabla means that your house is a bit bigger than average and you own an air conditioner and a TV. And between rich and poor there weren’t any problems either. A poor villager felt no jealousy for a rich one because of a TV. When a poor villager wanted to watch TV he was just going to watch at a rich man’s house. In Mr. Meena`s house (villagers’ head) sometimes there were 10 men watching TV and no one was from the Meena family.

Technical The main problems of the electricity system are not to be found in the technical area of the village. However, the distribution networks quality could be a lot better. In the whole village wires hang like a big knot from house to house, in the air, on the ground, broken and taped together. It really needs maintenance.

Also the villagers were very creative in repairing broken machines. When a fuse burned through, they put a little wire around the burned fuse. The machine worked again, but it wasn’t really safe. It’s also very important that villagers know it’s not allowed with the future solar system.

The real technical problem can be found in the electricity plants in Jaipur. Because there’s not enough money, the technology of the plants is not very qualitative and sometimes breaks down. This can sometimes lead to a few days without power.

Financial Financial problems are the main problem of the bad electricity in India. However the roots of this problem don’t lay in Dabla. We spoke with several villagers about the amount of people who pay their bills. And the answer on the question of someone didn’t was always no one, because Dabla is compared to other small villages very rich. The electricity bill existed of a standard amount of 200 Rs, and a price per used unit. So if anyone knows he doesn’t have enough money to use a TV and a refrigerator, he doesn’t use it.

This problem is caused because of the majority of the rest of India. A very big part of India is very poor. Electricity became very cheap because everybody should have the possibility to get access to it. So very much electricity is used, but the electricity plants don’t earn enough money. Not enough money causes not enough electricity, and a bad quality of technology inside the plants which also brings power cuts and other problems. Bad electricity in villages causes a lack of payment, and like this the circle is round.

The government says that everybody should be efficient with electricity use. But that is really hard to reach when you have 1 billion inhabitants.

1.2 Current Management of Electricity System The solar system has to be managed by the villagers of Dabla. Like that the people of Dabla are not fully dependent on an electricity company. The management involves tasks like administration, guarding and cleaning the solar panels and so on. In the research we were looking for a kind of management of the current electricity system. It turned out there were two men in responsibility of guarding the transformers, and in the evening and early morning they turned the electricity on and off. Once in two months a man came from Jaipur, where the electricity head office is located, and he checked the electricity meters in every house, after that the bill came with by mail. When something broke down, the villagers had to call Jaipur to get it repaired.

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1.3 Background Research Village In Dabla live about 5000 people. Every year the village grows with 15 houses and 30 house expands (extra floor or room). In one house lives an entire family, up to 15 persons a house. Usually when a couple marries, the woman is coming to live with the man.

This happens around the age of 15 to 25. The woman moves in with her husband in his parental house, mostly the parents are still living there. When the first kids arrive men with their wife’s are moving out. One of the sons is staying in the parental house, the other ones buy new houses. In this way, the houses will always be family property. Almost every family has a farm with land.

They’re not working on the land themselves but have a few men working for them. Almost all food that’s eaten in the village comes from their own farmlands.

Every child has to go to school. In the village there is one governmental school and a few private schools. Children of a very big area around Dabla come to these schools, some of them travel everyday two hours with a school bus. When they are done with their schools they have a possibility to go to college, mostly in Jaipur or Delhi. After school or college they are choosing a profession in the village, or sometimes a boy can stay in Jaipur or Delhi when he found a good job. But even when a man has a job in a city, he keeps a house in Dabla.

This excludes women; almost all women were married off to a man of another village.

The fact that every child is going to school works badly enough not for total Rajasthan. In Dabla 95% of people is literated, in Rajasthan 65%. Again the reason is that there is enough money in Dabla. When you had the possibility to go to school and finish it, the Indian government provides a scholarship for college.

In Dabla there are very normal professions to do. You’ll find a barber, farmer, carpenter, little shops etc. The average income of Dabla is around 7500 Rupies a month. That’s about 100 euro’s.

The infrastructure in the village is very bad. There is one very bad road though the village, and besides there are only sand paths.

There is no sewer. The villagers dig very deep holes were they dump their human waste, when it is full they dig a new hole. Not everyone has access to the toilet hole, so some toilet flushes are ending in the streets.

Everyone has a water tank or has access to a public water tank. The water isn’t drinkable for western people because of the bacteria’s, but the villagers drink it anyway. The rich villagers have a water filter. Near the train station a few kilometers out of town is a little shop that sells bottled drinking water.

Castes Castes are a complicated phenomenon in Rajasthan. At first it was thought that maybe castes were a sensitive subject to talk about. But the conversations with the villagers showed fast enough that every topic could be discussed. In our research we heard many different stories about the caste system in Dabla. Some people told us that the different castes are just different families, other told us that different castes were the hierarchical structure of the village. Our translator, after a few days a good friend, wanted to tell the real story about the castes: In India there are about 100 castes, or families. A caste is actually the same as a profession. A family name is the name of the caste you are living in, and the profession of your family very long ago. Or still. The name of our translator was Jangir, carpenter.

He lived in Dabla with his parents, his two brother, one brother’s wife and two children. His father, grandfather and two brothers all became carpenters.

The social status you gain from your caste was actually the status you gained from your profession. And that can easily be compared with the west. A lawyer or doctor has a very high status compared to a toilet lady. The whole problem India is that somewhere in history someone decided that nobody could step out of his cast, so if you were born a garbage man, you’d stay a garbage man. In some under developed parts of India this is still the way of life. In Dabla it wasn’t the way of life, but a lot of people stayed to it. Everybody went to school and had a chance to choose what he wanted to become. But 50 percent choose the profession of his caste. Maybe there was a kind of honor or respect that you gained from your family if you choose the family profession.

When someone got married, it always was with someone from the same cast. The parents choose a girl from another village. And a man could see his future wife once before the wedding.

In the ancient times the castes were divided into four main castes, Brahmins (priests),Kshatrivas (kings, warriors, law enforcers, administrators), Vaishyas (traders, bankers), and Shudras (Artisans,labourers,agriculturists,cattle raisers,craftsmen, service providers). In Dabla there lived 33 castes, Vaishyas and Shudras. Long ago foreigners were seen as caste less people, and Indians couldn’t touch them because otherwise they lost their ‘purity’ and they had to wash themselves. This tradition had past a long time ago.

In Dabla a lot of traditional rules of the caste system aren’t the same as in history. The highest castes are not the richest ones.

Like the Meena family, head of the village, was long ago a very low caste. Now they were the richest family of the village. The richest families lived in the big houses a bit upon the mountain, higher than the lower castes, or less rich families.

The castes in Dabla are still there, but it is nothing more than a kind of respect that the lower castes have towards the higher castes. And that respect is coming from a feeling that their ancestors had it too. So right now the castes aren’t really the ranks in social status, but the amount of money from your family; money is the new caste.

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We tried to find out if the caste system would have impact on a kind of management or responsibility of the solar system. It seems castes won’t be a problem at all; the rich and the poor want the same, electricity for the whole village. So Castes or money won’t play a role in the division of electricity.

Climate Dabla has a typical Rajasthan climate, called a tropical desert climate, hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. Summer, March to June, Monsoon July and august, winter, September to February. In the summer temperatures will raise to 45 degrees Celsius. In the winter the minimum temperature in the night is 0 degrees Celsius. The environment is dry and dusty, agriculture is only possible with irrigation of the fields. In the monsoon there falls 40 to 50 cm of rain. The whole area is full with little rivers from the mountains and the land is very fertile for a few months. With respect to the solar plant, Rajasthan climate is suited for solar power energy.

Government India is a democratic republic, divided into 28 provinces. Provinces are divided into districts. And some districts are divided into sub districts. At the head of a province there’s a governor. Under the governor there are two men responsible for everything that’s happening in the province; the collector, chosen by the governor, and the chairman, chosen by the people. The chairman is responsible for the police department and the Indian Administration Service (IAS). IAS is in charge of the land of the province, village expanding and for instance the building of solar systems and other developing projects.

The chairman is responsible for the heads of the districts. Each district has a head called a Pathuandi, and a Pathuandi receives advice from the so called Panchiats. Meena, Dabla’s head, is a Panchiat. Not every village can deliver a Panchiat, because the village needs a minimum number of inhabitants.

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2 Wants and Needs In this chapter the results of the Field Research considering the wants & needs of the village will be discussed. First an overview is given of the division of activities in the village based on the objectives. In chapter 2.2 the identified needs for electricity are discussed and in 2.3 the conclusion is given.

2.1 The Research The objectives for the field research considering the wants & needs are:  

Identify current activities that are of great importance for daily life of villagers and account for a substantial amount of time and human labor Identify possibilities for new activities that will improve the living standards of the villagers

For the identification of current activities the villagers have been observed and interviewed. The daily activities are mostly divided between the men and the women based on the caste system and centuries old traditions.

The women are responsible for household activities such as cooking, taking care of the children, washing clothes, cleaning the house etc.. The men go to work to earn money for the whole family by working as a craftsman, a farmer, running a shop or in some cases they work in close by cities. The villagers in Dabla are not to be considered poor since the most of them have enough financial means to provide for the basic needs.

The resources the women need for performing their daily activities are available close to their homes. Although wells dry out within 2 to 3 months after rainfall for the rest of the year, water is not to be considered scarce: several water pumps and tanks have been installed in the village making water available for everybody. The food comes directly from the local farmers and all other products the women need that are not available in the village, can be picked up with motorized vehicles in nearby villages.

Activities such as cooking account for a substantial amount of time, but since it’s in the women’s nature to spend a lot of time cooking, this shouldn’t be seen as an issue.

During the day the men spend the most of the time working to earn the income of the household. Although the need for steady electricity is very high, the unsteady electricity delivery forces the villagers to find alternative energy sources and ways of working. The wood cutters for example do not have a connection to the electricity grid at all because their machines need to run the whole day long. They use expensive and unhealthy diesel powered machines. The farmers on the other hand do have a connection to the grid because they use electric pumps for the irrigation of the farmlands. Unpredictable electricity delivery means the farmers have unpredictable working hours. Other craftsmen such as carpenter use manual tools when the electricity is not available and they can’t use their electric power machines.

One can conclude that the unsteady electricity delivery poses a lot of challenges for the villages they have to deal with in order to be able to earn money for the households.

Powering machinery such as water pumps for the wells and wood cutters require a large amount of electricity. This can pose some challenges for the solar power plant especially when all machinery is used at once. The electricity coming from the solar power plant is limited. Powering all the machinery of the farmers and craftsmen will mean that the villagers will receive less electricity for other needs. Therefore it may be necessary to design smaller stand alone solar power generators for the farmers and craftsmen. To keep to costs low the farmers or other users can agree to pay for such as a system as a group. Because such systems are customizable the users will be able to purchase a system with the best price offer and that suits their needs the best.

The irrigation of farmlands can sometimes be a problem because of the distances between the well and the land that needs irrigating. Farmers experience problems with the pumps that have not enough power to cover the distance. There are two possibilities to solve this problem. The first one is to purchase a bigger pump which is expensive. The second option is to install a small kicker-pump which is used halfway the distance between the well and the farmland. This pump will increase the water pressure making covering the distance possible. This kicker-pump can be powered by solar panels.

During the field research the villagers have made clear that there is a need for a community house where people can share resources such as computers, water filters, televisions, books etc. These are things that some households cannot afford but would like to have. This community house is a possibility for an income generating activity since people will have to pay for the resources they use in the community house. The building for a community house is being built at the moment and is therefore not finished yet.

Another possibility for an income generating activity is the maintenance of the solar power plant and the stand alone solar power generators. Several villages can receive training in maintenance and operations of the solar power plant and generator and then get paid by the villagers on hiring base.

A last option for an income generating activity is rental of the PV powered kicker-pumps described earlier. The farmers don’t always need an extra pump and therefore it is too expensive to purchase a pump. Renting such pumps should be more costeffective.

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2.2 Identified Needs During the field research in Dabla three primary needs are identified:  Proper roads  Sewage system  Steady electricity The problem with the roads and the sewage system are connected to one another. At this moment the village has no proper sewage system for the waste water of the households. Therefore the waste water ends up on the streets causing flooded areas at the lowest point of the village. This results in many cases in streets that are inaccessible for pedestrians and vehicles.

When an important road becomes inaccessible, the villagers drop a layer of stones to bury the waste water, but the actual problem isn’t solved by doing so.

The open sewage can of course also cause health and environmental problems, but nothing has been researched on this matter so far. The villagers try to dig small ditches to guide the water in a proper way, but this causes even more damage to the roads.

Apart from the problems with the sewage system, the roads often contain large holes that can cause accidents.

The last identified primary need is the availability of steady electricity. Since electricity is being used for all kind of activities and applications, a diagram is made in which this need has been divided in several groups based on the applications and users of the electricity. See diagram 1.

Diagram 1: Division of electricity need according to activities and users

Households One of the most important and basic applications for electricity in households is used for in- and outdoor lighting. The indoor lighting is used in at least one room where people can dine and spend the evening inside. The outdoor lighting is often used for doing work which always happens on the property around the house.

Apart from lighting, there are a lot of other applications that diver per household. The number and type of other applications are based on the income of the households. Richer villagers have a television, water filter, boiler for warm water, air conditioner, machinery for their work, fans and mobile phone chargers. Water filters are expensive and a small amount of people in the village have enough financial means to afford them. Therefore water filters can be installed on community base, meaning that the whole community pays for installation and use of the filters.

The boilers and air conditioner consume a lot of electricity making the solar power plant more expensive. Therefore these applications will not be provided. The rest of the applications are to be considered as extra, instead of basic need.

Public institutions Three important public institutions have been identified: a governmental and a private school, community house and the assembly house. By providing electricity for the governmental school it can be used for lighting in the classrooms and the sports field. This lighting will make it possible to organize events for the students during the evening after the lessons. The school also

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has a classroom with 15 computers which are barely used because of lack of electricity during the day. By providing electricity for these computers, the pupils can use the computers to educate themselves.

The private school doesn’t has computers, so electricity will mostly be used for lighting in the classrooms.

The community house of the village is being built at this moment, so there are no electricity applications yet. This provides opportunities to decide which services can be provided for the community that need electricity. For example: several computers can be installed, lighting to read, water filters, a television etc..

The assembly house is the administration institution of the building where villagers can gather to discuss all kind of issues about the village. By providing lighting the villagers have the possibility to gather during the evening. This is very important since during the day the people are working. Also a computer needs to be installed which will be used for the administration of the village.

Income generating activities The income generating activities of the villagers can be divided in three main groups: farms, craftsmen and shops. The farms only need electricity for operating there water pump that pumps up water from wells near the farmland. For this purpose it is of great importance that the electricity is steady, because if the lands are not irrigated on time the farming season can be missed. As a result the farmer will have no earnings for at least six months. Lighting is not needed for farming since the farmers don’t work during the evening and night.

The craftsmen need electricity for the machinery which in some cases the demand is very high compared to what normal households need. For example, the woodcutters, that are mostly located outside the village, use machinery that uses up to 800 W, while a hairdresser uses only a small trimmer. These electricity users can pose some extra challenges for the solar power plant and additional solutions might be needed. These solutions will be discussed in the next section.

The shops only require electricity for lighting and in some cases refrigerators.

Street At this moment outdoor lighting of houses functions as street lighting, but not all houses have outdoor lighting leaving a large part of the village in darkness in the evening. During a power cut in some cases it even becomes almost impossible to find your way through the streets of the village. Therefore a need for proper street lighting has been identified.

2.3 Conclusions The field research has not only uncovered the most important needs of the villagers, but it has also identified possibilities to reorganize and decentralize the use and demand of electricity. By using stand-alone customizable solar power generators the users will have the ability to design a system that suits their energy need. This way the use of expensive conventional fuel can be eliminated.

The next step is to use the information of the field research in designing a solar plant and the stand alone customizable power generators.

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3. Solar Power Plant Load and Design At the start, the field research main goal concerning the actual design was to find out how detailed the initial hypothetical load study was, what the best payment schemes were and what design could be optimal for the village, including grid distribution and peripheral structures like battery storage and administration offices. The main findings will now be stated, including the research methodology, and their effect on the design and load study. Finally, this will all be incorporated in a pending list of further development, which will take final shape in the DPR itself.

As for the research methodology, this was composed of several different techniques. Firstly, several village visits have been taken to get a general impression of the electricity, including checking the existing grid, visiting community services and checking the number of appliances in typical households. Secondly, some interviews were taken with several villagers and local entrepreneurs and asked them about their electricity use, electricity bills and their willingness to cooperate. Thirdly, several meetings have been held with the governing and richer classes of the village to discuss the plans and their future possible cooperation. The meetings included some with the village head family, local educated businessmen and the divisional commissioner of the district in Rajasthan’s capital Jaipur. Finally, a visit to an existing solar power plant was made, about the same size as our intended one in a nearby village, to see what were their challenges and problems.

3.1 Village Load The first and foremost goal of the study is of course how big the system should be. The most important nuisance in the village is that electricity does not come in a steady supply, so it is vital for the solar panels to provide more than enough electricity. The village load has been studied in two ways. First, the number of users, categorised in ordinary houses, community services and big consumers (farmers, small wood carving factories), has been studied. After that, a check list with all appliances the villagers used in their homes has been used to find out the typical load for these services. Through some simple calculations one can then find a rough estimate of the village load. Secondly, when power was provided during the village and the presumed peak time of 19:00, we visited the power house to check the load meters over there. These showed a rather constant power usage of 50 kW, over twice the amount expected. This is the typical load, so for safety, the peak load for the villagers is set at 80 kW. However, this figure does not include heavy appliances like water pumps and machines who were not operated during that time, but only the village small appliances (lighting, fans, TV, small refrigerators) itself. Also, the number of households present is a lot lower than 2000, the number given by some villagers. It is therefore crucial to get accurate data on the number of inhabitants and the number of data before an accurate average and peak load can be determined. This will hopefully be provided in due course.

For the heavy consumers, it is therefore more suitable to provide them with an own micro system, to make sure the village load will not have high peaks in power. The water pumps in the wells of the farmer are 20 hp or 14 kW. There are about 50 working wells in the surrounding village, and the proposed plan was to work in shifts of 3 when irrigating the land, one in the morning, one in the early afternoon and one in the late afternoon, so one farmer does not need to buy a full system. Also, batteries for nightly activity are not required for such a system, making it cheaper. Other businesses can also work using this rooftop/microgrid solution if their electricity demand exceeds normal village load. The final step to consider is whether to connect the whole village at once or start up with the more affluent villagers as a first step. During the meeting with the divisional commissioner Mr. Gupta, it was said that in many cases villagers may be weary of a new system. Although the interviews pointed out no such fear, this only may be so due to interviewees giving socially acceptable answers. There are both ups and downs to installing a system only for a select group in the beginning. As said, once it works, many people can join in, the risks are therefore lower and it can be installed gradually. The total load and therefore size of the system is smaller. However, it is technically much easier to install a full system at once, because of transportation, location and distribution issues. Especially the last two are important, as a system for a select group will almost certainly need to be a near house or rooftop solution, not being able to use the existing grid.

This is almost the direct opposite of the main design in mind, one common location for the entire village, and so brings in many difficulties in the design of the system. For now, one can conclude that providing the whole village with power is still within reasonably low risk and has much less difficult design issues so this design will have the preference over rooftop/near house solutions.

3.2 System Design and Irradiance One of the key aspects of the solar plant design is of course the behaviour of the ultimate supplier of the energy, the sun. An extensive qualitative study has therefore been conducted, asking how the sun moves through the sky at certain parts of the year, and about the solar misalignment with the zenith, the point in the sky when looking straight up.

The initial data of irradiances taken from the load study have been qualitatively confirmed by local villagers. As expected, the least amount of daylight is in December and is around 11 hours, from 6.00 until 17:00. During this month, the sun has a maximum misalignment of 46o with the zenith, which results in about a 35% decrease in energy per horizontal surface area compared to June, when the sun is almost straight up in the sky. As land space on all locations is limited, one should think of a suitable way to solve this problem. An optimal solution is that the tilt towards the sun could actually be adjustable throughout the year, which can be done using a solar tracker device. However, many of these trackers are expensive due to expensive tracking software and electronics. At the Hyderabad Solarcon convention, there was a company which has a special version for rural plants, which uses no electronics but instead preset gaps to fix the tracker. The tracker operates on a dual axis principle, meaning

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it tracks both seasonally as well as daily solar movements, has to be operated manually and looked very promising for the Dabla power plant site. The manual operation hopefully will also lead to a good maintenance of the solar panels, as it is required to do an inspection round twice a day. Although the tracker leads to extra costs of about 8% of the total project costs, it will result in a 30% better energy output per area of solar panels, meaning more efficient land area and less solar panels needed.

Another key issue in the design of the power plant is the concern of ‘black days’, meaning times with little or no solar irradiance to power the village. According to data of NASA Earth Observation, there are per month 4 black days (so 96 hours per month) in December or January, this is the highest for the year, and maximum of 3 black days in a week. This means that there should be an extra capacity of 3 to 4 days of village energy use. There are two possibilities to deal with this problem, either installing more solar panels or more batteries used as emergency backup. Although more solar panels are cheaper in the long run and easier, due to the limited space available, batteries are the best option for Dabla in particular. These will be charged during days with excess solar irradiance. There are therefore two battery packs; one for nightly activity, used every day and one pack for emergency electricity supply.

The best location for the solar panels and electrical components are near the transformer power house a few hundred metres outside the village. The main advantage of this location, next to the publically available land and no shadow areas, is that the solar panels can be hooked up to the existing distribution grid in the village. This will decrease the costs of the system, makes sure villagers do not need extra adjustments in the wiring in their house and actually do not feel a difference in their homes, other than a steady electricity supply instead of the failing on grid supply. The distribution grid in the village itself is a relative reasonable state, but will need proper maintenance and renovation within 5 years in order to make sure it does not become the weak link in the system. As said, the main aim of the solar power plant is to bring a steady, reliable electricity supply, so frequent power cuts will damage the village’s consensus on the project.

Moreover, the centralised location of the solar panels and batteries will give more security over the system. In the interviews, some people preferred to have batteries installed at home, but this is not possible in the current design due to the AC character of the distribution system. However, many people did not fully understand the advantages of batteries in a centralised location or at their homes. For better security, maintenance, distribution and energy saving it is more logical to place the batteries near the solar panels. There is some room in the power house building, but probably a new building has to be built for the batteries.

Diagram 2: A graphical model of the solar power system

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The load has now only been calculated for the existing appliances, taking into account a 5% growth each year. However, the original plan also consisted of placing new appliances, in particular streetlights and PCs and water filters for proper drinking water. The PCs are not necessary however, as all people wanting one have already purchased them. Streetlights however are needed and they will bring extra load onto the grid. This can be minimised when using LED lighting. The extra load given by streetlights can be compensated by giving one or two LED lights to villagers. All of them currently use CFL or incandescent lights, using way more power than LEDs. Also, in case of energy shortage in the system, the lights will have such a low load they will almost always function. It is therefore a good idea to provide villagers with a few LED lights.

The last part researched was they payment system, which is very important for the system to work. It should be cost effective for every user, both villager as heavy consumer. The estimated costs are about Rs 800 for a normal villager, which is equal to the price of the grid electricity. However, the grid electricity price is deemed to increase a lot due to enormous shortages in electricity, whereas the solar energy will remain stable with only an increase due to inflation. The price of 1 kWh of electricity is Rs 5,- for villagers and Rs 2,- for farmers (subsidised by the Indian Government) and the price of the solar energy will be without funding about Rs 6,-. The payment method may be most effective when nothing changes for the villagers. They already have an energy meter at their homes and once every two months, a serviceman checks the energy use which have to be paid on a postpaid system. Introducing a prepaid system or new payment timeframes will probably only induce more worries and fear for the new system. The payment made is therefore based on the amount of electrical units spent over a period of two monts. There is an extra supplement on top of that, shared equally by villagers’ income for streetlights and other community services. This supplement now is already Rs 100 month for meter use and other services. The villagers will all have access to electricity for 24 hours as it is more expensive to introduce a system where some villagers have no access at night, a model put up in the beginning. Frankly, this will lead to more hassle and other costs, while paying per unit is in essence the same and is a much clearer way of paying. There have never been any trouble with people not paying their electricity bills and it is expected that when the price is about the same as now there will be no problems in the future as well, so no circuit breakers will be installed to lower the costs.

3.3 Further development The field research gave some very good information and insights in the village structure and their electricity needs. There are however some problems and challenges that are pending at the moment and need to be looked at in more detail before final decisions can be made about these. First of all, there needs to be accurate data on the number of households connected in Dabla.

The electricity service man and village head will need to provide this, but so far no accurate data has been found. For now, it is estimated Dabla has 5000 inhabitants and 1250 households. Secondly, the load study and battery capacity has to be adjusted and elaborated. For this, a lot of extra data and calculation is needed and the final load study and price per unit will be delivered in the DPR. Using this data, one can accurately make a good size and detailed design of the system. Lastly, partners need to be found for providing all the components, i.e. the solar panels, charge controllers, inverters, batteries, instalment and transportation. In short, all the qualitative aspects discussed here need to be made quantitative.

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4 Possible Locations for solar plant The area in and around the village provides three fields on which a solar power plant can be build. The location of the fields is selected based on five criteria:     

The available surface The surrounding area that can cause shading The possibilities to connect the solar plant to the existing distribution grid Aspects that can damage the solar power plant Ease of installation

The surface needs to be big enough for all solar panels and a building for the operator, batteries and charge controllers.

Mountains, houses and trees are objects in the surrounding area that can cause shading and decrease the amount of electricity produced.

The village has a distribution grid that distributes the electricity coming from the national grid at the power house. The solar plant needs to be installed on a location where access to this existing distribution grid is possible to prevent having to spend financial means on expanding the distribution grid.

Rivers, dust and children throwing stones are examples of aspects that can damage the solar power plant. There are several small rivers close to the village that drain the rain water coming from the nearby mountains. The risk of rivers flooding during rainy season is very small according to the villagers, but this risk has to be taken into account since water can severely damage the solar power plant. The dust rising up from nearby roads can fall on the solar plant decreasing the amount of electricity produced if not cleaned. Therefore nearby roads can be taken into account, but the traffic flow in the village is very low and will probably barely make any difference to the amount of dust that falls on the solar panels.

The ease of installation means that the location has to be as flat as possible and easily accessible for vehicles and equipment. The costs for the installation of the solar power plant will increase if the location has to be flattened out and no roads are available.

4.1 Overview of the village The village is partly built around a mountain which is located south of the main part of the village. The top of the mountain has a height of approximately 105 m measured from the village. South-east from the village is a second mountain that has a similar height. Depending on the time of the year these mountains can cause shadows on the village and the locations for the solar power plant.

The three fields that are considered possible as a location for the power solar plant are located South-west, South-east and South of the village. In figure 1 the mountain and village borders are given with the three possible locations for a solar power plant.

Figure 1: overview of the village.

Field 1 Field 2 Field 3

Mountain border Village border

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The farmlands that are part of Dabla are mostly located west of the village and these lands also have a connection to the electricity grid. The electricity grid runs through the whole village and starts at the power house east of the village as shown in figure 1.

There is no official and accurate map of the village available. The only map the village has is a self-made one which is more of a sketch than a useful map. Therefore coordinates have been collected of important institutions and locations in the village with a GPS. The coordinates are shown in the table below.

Name Village Power House Field 1 Field 2 Field 3 Oil shop Mobile Post Governmental school

Coordinates 27°54'6.89"N 75°56'0.50"E 27°53'50.27"N 75°56'13.06"E 27°53'56.75"N 75°55'43.67"E 27°53'44.99"N 75°56'3.79"E 27°53'48.77"N 75°56'14.10"E 27°53'48.02"N 75°56'6.95"E 27°54'3.81"N 75°56'4.89"E 27°53'56.00"N 75°56'11.03"E

There are more important locations in the village, but the coordinates haven’t been collected yet.

4.2 Field 1 Field 1 is located south-west of the village between the 2 mountains. It has a surface of approximately 0.41 ha which equals 4100 m2. There is a possibility to expand the field with another 4000 m2 (or more if needed) to the South, but this area will need to be flattened out.

Shading is mostly causes by the mountain on the west of the field, especially during the first hours of the morning. There are also two trees on the field that will cause shading during the whole day.

The nearby possibility for connection the field to the existing electricity grid is located approximately 180 m north-east of the field.

Two small rivers are running on both sides of the field that dry out 2 to 3 months after rainy season. The villagers don’t expect the river to flood as mentioned before. But the field is surrounded with small dikes that seem to prevent the water entering the field, see picture 2.

Picture 1: field 1 with the South-west Mountain

Figure 2: field 1 in blue, possibility to expand in white, rivers in green and mountain\s in red

Picture 2: the small dikes of field 1

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There are no roads that lead to the village and combined with the surrounding small rivers the field can be considered as difficult to access. This might pose some issues for the installation of the solar plant, but it is not impossible. The field is public property meaning that the head of the village and the villagers can decide for what purpose the field will be used. At this moment it’s unused piece of land where children often play.

4.3 Field 2 The second field is also public property. It is located south of the village and it has a surface of 0.38 ha which equals 3800 m2. This field can be expanded with another 0.12 ha as shown in figure 3. No shading will be caused by mountains since they are located west from this field. The only object that will cause shading is a tree on the field.

The best possibility for connecting this field to the existing electricity grid is the nearby power house located approximately 300 m north-east from the field. This possibility has a big advantage that a part of the equipment needed for distribution of electricity is already available at the power house.

The field is surrounded by roads making it easy accessible for installation and maintenance. The only issue these roads pose is the increasing amount of dust that can fall on the solar panels.

The field needs flattening out before the solar Figure power can to expand be 3: field 2 instation yellow, possibility inbuild. white and mountain in red

Picture 3: field 2 facing west

Picture 5: field 2 facing south. Area to expand is behind the wall

4.4 Field 3 Field 3 is governmental property meaning that person from the state government is needed before the solar power plant can be build. According to the villagers the arrangements will take a lot of time before permission is given to do anything with this piece of land.

This field is located east of the mountains and the grounds of the existing power house. It has a surface of 0.41 ha which equals 4100 me. There are no possibilities to expand since the field is surrounded by farmers, a hospital, the governmental school’s play ground and more governmental property. The biggest advantage of this location is that the most of the equipment needed for the distribution of the electricity is already available. Also the building of the power house can be used for the batteries, charge controllers and the operator. This kind of building is not available at the other fields. There are no objects that can cause shading on the field and in the surrounding area. The field is surrounded by a wall with a gate making it easy to guard the power plant.

The area is flat and accessible by nearby roads.

Figure 4: field 3in green and the mountain in red

12 Picture 5: field 3, facing north

Picture 6: the power house

4.5 Conclusion Comparing all the fields as done in diagram 2 shows little differences between field 2 and 3. But field 2 should be considered as the easiest option to install a solar power plant. The main reasons are that the surface is probably sufficient and the field is public property.

Field 3 is the best option because of the availability of the facilities needed for the solar power plant. The disadvantage of this field is the fact that it is governmental property. Field 1 seems to be the least feasible field since it is isolated from the village, problems with shading will occur and the surrounding rivers may flood.

Although this analyze is very rough, it should give an idea of what the possibilities for locations for building a solar power plant are. The locations have been discussed with the villagers and they have agreed. The question that still remains open is whether the existing connection to the grid will be demolished or not. If the solar power plant is sufficient for the electricity demand, the old power house is not needed. Except that a close by stone mine is using the electricity provided by the existing power house, meaning that a part should keep working. Further research about the locations is needed to determine what the exact possibilities are.

Criteria Surface Shading Connection to grid Damage Ease of installation

Field 1

Field 2

Field 3

Diagram 2: comparison of all locations

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5 Conclusion of the Field Research The field research was divided into different areas of study, which all needed rough data to find the best answers for certain problems and challenges. As seen in the report, the sub research area were getting a complete background image of the village, indentifying current and future wants and needs, assessing the load, designing the most optimal system and finding a suitable location for the plant. The findings have been explained in this report and will be used in the pending DPR when all aspects merge together to provide one solar energy solution for Dabla.

The background study revealed that Dabla is a perfect village for a intended pilot project like this. The inhabitants are relatively rich, willing to cooperate and there are little social problems. The infrastructure however, is really bad and needs a lot of maintenance. Caste systems were present in the village but do not pose a threat to the system, every villager lives in harmony with each other.

The wants and needs of the villagers are more basic than first thought, setting up big businesses or income generating activities is not very likely on a small time scale. First, basic living needs like roads, a sewage system and electricity are needed before entrepreneurial activities can fully flourish. As for the electricity, the main wants and needs are lighting for villagers and water pumps for farmers. The latter will create a big load on the system and may need its own micro grid to sustain it.

The load of the village is a lot higher than expected at first, but still accurate data about the number of consumers needs to be given before one can give definite answers on the load. The solar power plant will be very centralized in character and the payment system will remain the system as it is currently, paying a fixed price for meter rent and community services and an amount linked to the electricity use. It is desirable to give every villager one or two LED lamps to lower the load.

There are three suitable locations for the solar power plant, and the best one is located near the powerhouse. Unfortunately, this is government property so permission is needed before anything can be built upon it. The main advantage however is that the electricity can very easily be distributed through the village.

All in all, the first visit to Dabla was very promising and gave much data and insights about the best solution for the village. Still there are a number of certain questions, but these will probably be resolved in the DPR.

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