Government-owned crude oil refinery Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is working towards utilising its extensive

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network, especially in remote areas, to promote solar lamps in the countryside. Besides providing livelihood opportunities, the effort would ensure better illumination and smoke-free indoor environment. The efforts are in line with UPA’s mandate of achieving energy security.

The company has tied up with Hyderabad-based MIC Electronics and three other Noida-based firms - Ritika Systems, Solid Solar and Halonix. These companies would provide solar lamps to the oil refinery and IOC would then supply it in rural areas through its network. The company which had started the campaign early this year, have now lined up suppliers for solar panels and lanterns, said B M Bansal, director for planning and business development, at Indian Oil.

“We have started with Meerut and Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and few villages in Orissa. We will expand this green campaign to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattishgarh and Maharashtra,” said Bansal. The solar lamps, which are expected to replace traditional kerosene lamps, cost Rs 2,200 per piece.

Keeping in view the price of the solar lamp and the average-paying capacity of people in villages, the company is providing three options for the villagers to buy lamps. First, a person can buy it directly from a retailer by paying cash. Second, one can purchase the lamp on easy monthly installments. The public sector company will help the villager to get loans from micro-finance organisations. Third, if a person cannot afford to buy the lamp, he can hire one from the panchayat or the gram seva kendra on minimal rent.

Solar lanterns can be provided either with small attached solar panels for better-off villagers, as they are a bit expensive, or the lanterns can be charged at a central charging station during the day and rented out to the villagers and shopkeepers in the evening hours.

“We plan to facilitate sale of three lakh lanterns by 2012. However, the capacity to manufacture lanterns meeting our needs is limited. This is an evolving field and we expect more suppliers will come and the existing suppliers would expand their capacities in due course to meet the expanding demand,” said another company official, who did not wish to be identified.

“Solar charging stations, if replicated across India in a big way, would also go a long way in reducing the subsidy burden on the government on account of savings of kerosene distributed through the public distribution system. Such savings can be diverted to encourage more solar energy projects to cater to lighting and other energy needs of the rural populace,” said Bansal.