Lighting Up the Schools in Rural Villages in India
Cleantech, Applied
For 12 year old, Savitri from Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh,India, school was only till dusk and she had to manage with a kerosenelamp, which used to cast shadow on the books and gave limited amount oflight. Throughout rural parts of India, many children work in thefields during the day and attend school only at night. Due toelectricity outages there is often not enough power to light theclassrooms after dark.
About 2 years ago, Applied Materials, in collaboration with New Energy Foundation(NEF), donated 500 solar lanterns to address this problem – lightingthe way for the future education of 15,000 school children. Today,Savitri is delighted to attend school, as she knows there is a solarlantern that can light up the classroom and she can study well.
Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki, Chairman, New Energy Foundation, applaudedApplied’s efforts in decreasing dependence on conventional fossil fuelbased energy and supporting education along with clean, affordableenergy practices. He said,” the donation made a huge difference to NEFas it encouraged other organizations to make similar contributions andwe are now working to provide about 1,000 solar lanterns by March 2010.”
Most Indian states have abundant sunlight through the year, whichmakes a solar PV lantern a very attractive option. The pilot projecthas exhibited significant impact on the quality of education due to theuse of solar PV lanterns in evening schools. With support fromcorporations and individuals, solar lanterns will replace dim kerosenelamp lights in the schools. The solar lantern emanates light for abrighter classroom and a better life for Savitri and many more kidslike her.
