Specially written for Vikalp Sangam
This essay draws attention to the ‘democratic nature of sunlight’, to the need for democratization of solar energy knowledge and to a hands-on, participatory, training experiment on micro-solar electricity generation and its applications, involving local youth from a suburb near Kolkata.
Solar energy as the commons
‘Who owns the sun’? Berman and O’Connor (1996) ask pointedly, encouraging us to ponder over the distinctiveness of solar energy which is abundant, non-polluting, and free- freely available and free of cost. Unlike finite, costly, polluting, and privately controllable energy sources such as fossil fuels, solar energy is a classic example of the commons – a universally available, non-excludable, and non-rival ‘public good’ that can be directly harnessed by anybody ‘at the point of use’ and yet forever remaining outside the grip of private ownership (Majumdar and Majumdar,2016).
Solar energy knowledge as the commons
Building upon this idea of a ‘commonwealth’ of energy, one may further argue that knowledge about solar energy in general and skills to harness solar electricity in particular need to be cultivated and disseminated as the commons, away from the control of centralized ‘knowledge hegemons’. But why is it important to democratize solar energy knowledge? A simple answer is to enhance people’s self-sufficiency and their access to the ‘decision space’ so as to influence the direction in which energy policy must progress. Fossil fuel industries are known to bend public policies to their interest, control the electricity market as well as the market for solar and photovoltaic devices, and make decisions about how various energy sources and technologies are to be deployed, mostly in self-interested ways (Berman and O’Connor, 1996). It is arguable, therefore, that democratization of energy knowledge, production, and governance will enable people to turn energy research, policies and experimentation in the direction of public interest.
Which way to go and why: Mega- versus micro-solar
Advocating public control of and participation in solar development pushes us to raise the next critical question: which ‘solar’ way to go, such that it is both environmentally and people-friendly? For example, the idea of harvesting solar energy through setting up mega-solar parks is the dominant policy thinking in many parts of the globe including India. Such projects have, however, evoked several counter-questions regarding their unfavourable consequences such as land dispossession of the people residing in the areas where these parks are set up and the loss of their livelihoods, and the possible loss of ecological diversity (Khar and Iychettira, 2024; Kothari and Bajpai, 2024). Similarly, grid-tied, rooftop solar energy projects, another mainstream approach, do not adequately address the question of empowering people with the advantages of independence and self-reliance in both directly consuming and producing people’s own solar electricity such that they become ‘prosumers’ (producers as well as consumers). Also, it is unclear to what extent grid-tied solar power generation initiatives have contributed towards reduction in the use of fossil fuel. For example, there is no record of electricity companies, that are using such solar electricity (surely, giving households the benefit of reduced electricity bills), actually closing down thermal power plants. So the actual environmental gains from such projects remain uncertain.
A micro-solar approach, in contrast, aims to enhance people’s knowledge and skills in availing long-term benefits from sunlight without solely depending on the so-called expert knowledge in this regard which often remains centralized and inaccessible to common people. Decentralized, off-grid, small-scale, rooftop, solar experimentation can facilitate generation of ‘public power’ in a sustainable, and community-managed way, which is also free from fire and shock hazards, and is cost-effective. Impediments to such routes of solar development are not really technological but rather due to fears that profit margins of private energy companies will suffer.
Surely, concerns have been raised about decentralized ‘energy democracy’ approaches on several grounds including the one that such ‘low-modernist’ solar technologies are usually poor services meant for poor people. In her painstaking and sophisticated analysis of the history of alternative solar technologies in India, spanning the period between 1878 and 1966, and focusing primarily on scientific research and practice of solar cooker adoption at that time, Chatterjee (2023) voices some critical concerns about the approach of ‘small solar’ as opposed to that of ‘big solar’.
More concretely, in her forceful argument, a major reason why such solar experimentation failed commercially as well as in terms of social adoption was a kind of ‘dualism’ that characterized Indian energy policy during those early stages of solar research: while low-modernist, austere and ‘inferior’ off-grid devices were being offered ‘to meet the minimal and static needs of the rural poor’, ‘flexible and resource-intensive grid electricity for urban centres’ represented the high-modernist end of this dualist technology spectrum. That a second-class technology fix may be problematic from the standpoint of both efficiency and equity is a reasonable concern. However, fast-forwarding to the current time when the entire planet is poor with respect to the availability of carbon-free energy resources, small solar is perhaps the most sensible option for humans- both rich and poor. More pointedly, micro-solar may become a ‘rich man’s’ energy solution to cut down their excesses and at once solve the problem of energy inequality. In short, it is energy-frugality, not energy-extravagance, that needs to be viewed as the pointer of new modernity.
It is also apt to point out in the hindsight of history that solar experimentation has often been impeded by giant energy corporations (Berman and O’Connor, 1996). More disconcertingly, even in their recent appropriation of the solar development agenda, the mega-solar technology that they tend to promote and the social acceptance that they tend to manufacture in its favour are primarily self-regarding and profit-oriented to the relative neglect of enhancing ‘public power’.
Some of the concerns regarding a micro-solar approach thus addressed, we turn to talk about a hands-on training programme on ‘small solar’.
A skills training programme on micro-solar electricity
Community involvement in generation and application of micro-solar electricity is an integral component of the democratization process under discussion. This entails a two-pronged approach: (a) raising the consciousness of the community regarding the dire environmental crisis facing the world today, underlining the acute need to abjure severely polluting fossil fuel use; (b) to train local youth in switching to micro-solar electricity generation and applications in the community. To this end, a prototype training programme in basics of micro-solar electricity generation has been undertaken under the aegis of Pratichi (India) Trust. This prototype was aimed at youth from economically disadvantaged sections of the community, who have not had any opportunity to learn about solar electricity. Starting from scratch, so that prior acquaintance with basic electrical technology was not a prerequisite, the completely hands-on programme covered a substantial ground, from prepping solar panels to charge batteries, to fabrication and use of basic solar-powered LED lighting and BLDC fans, mobile phone and laptop chargers, while learning use of multimeters to measure voltages and currents all along the way. This was followed by fabrication of low-cost water purifiers powered by micro-solar electricity and also low cost solar cookers. The training was followed up by actual application of the knowhow picked up by the trainees to set up micro-solar electricity devices including solar panels at a community Anganwadi (ICDS) centre. This was done primarily by the trainees as part of the prototype. The first phase of the training programme has been documented at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiX_FGDrOxA&t=28s as a short documentary.
In the next phase, the trainees have now acquired expertise to employ more advanced techniques involving solar converter boxes and changeover switches (which they have learnt to fabricate) to run commercially available LED tube lights, LED bulbs and AC-DC fans, so as to integrate with the grid AC electric supply, and yet remain completely independent of the grid. The flexibility of dual use of grid 220V AC electricity and 12 V micro-solar electricity empowers the young trainees to play a more positive role in serving the energy needs of the community and also serve as resource persons – as grassroots climate entrepreneurs- to `spread the word’ on micro-solar off-grid electricity generation and application for future generations of trainees. Also, by creating new earning opportunities for the trainees in, say, startup companies in a local solar economy, this approach integrates livelihood needs of young people with needs for environmental sustenance. We also envisage a gradual changeover of the community from polluting thermal power generated grid electricity, to clean and green micro-solar electricity to ameliorate the ensuing environmental crisis.
In concluding, we wish to underline the critical role that the local community can play in nurturing and sustaining a democratic model of solar electricity production and management. It is indeed the absence of such involvement that partly explains why diffusion and social adoption of solar energy resource is limited in our country. We, no doubt, need a locally rooted democratic drive to cultivate a solar society and a solar economy.
References:
Berman, Daniel M. & John T. O’Connor (1996), Who Owns the Sun? People, Politics, and the Struggle for a Solar Economy, Chelsea Green Publishing Company, White River Junction, Vermont.
Chatterjee, Elizabeth (2023), “The poor woman’s energy: Low-modernist solar technologies and international development, 1878–1966”, Journal of Global History, 18: 3.
Khar, Sukanya and Kaveri Iychettira (2024), “The challenges of renewable energy”, The Hindu, Monday, April 22.
Kothari, Ashish and Shrishtee Bajpai (2024), “A half-hearted climate change verdict”, The Hindu, Tuesday, May 7.
Majumdar, Manabi and Parthasarathi Majumdar (2016), “The Key to Solar Energy’s Success is to Make Knowledge About it Free”, The Wire, 2 July.
Contact the authors: Manabi Majumdar | Parthasarathi Majumdar