The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has roped in city-based Selco Foundation to run pilot project to ultimately benefit Karnataka

​US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Selco Foundation in Bengaluru are sowing the seeds for large-scale rural solar electrification in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The aim is to pepper rural landscapes with well-placed 10-50 kW solar power micro-grids to directly supply uninterrupted power supply at minimal cost to small clusters of houses in villages.

The idea is to install solar power micro-grids in villages so that larger electric supply grids using conventional thermal/hydel power could more easily meet the growing urban demand for power in future.
Selco Foundation, a non-profit organisation focusing on enhancing quality of life and wealth creation in rural India through sustainable energy applications, is scheduled to run a pilot project in Munger district in Bihar to test an MIT-developed software tool that automatically analyses ideal locations for installing micro-grids.
According to MIT, a team of its graduate students and data scientists developed a software tool that identifies houses from readily-available satellite imagery and automatically analyses precise locations for setting up solar micro-grids in villages.
An MIT News Office release on the project said once the locations of houses are determined the computer runs thousands of combinations on where solar panels, battery packs, and distribution wires could be located.

This allows the team to pick configurations that provide power to the greatest number of houses with the least wiring to minimise costs.
Niraj Marathe, project lead, Selco Foundation, told Bangalore Mirror, “If proven accurate and effective, it can be used by project developers as an affordable planning tool as it will consider optimum costing as basis for planning and design of a (solar power) micro-grid system.”
In a pre-pilot trial run conducted by MIT in an unnamed Indian village, it was found that the process indeed saved considerable time and money otherwise spent in sending teams from village to village to identify locations.
The MIT findings have been published in the journal Big Data.
After the pre-pilot trial, MIT roped in Selco Foundation to conduct the pilot project in Munger.
Marathe said following the successful completion of the pilot in Munger, Selco plans to scout for villages in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to install solar power-grids using the MIT software.
“We will work on two micro-grids simultaneously (in Munger). One will be planned and designed using the MIT tool, while the other will follow conventional planning and design methodology of Selco,” Marathe explained. “This will help us evaluate the effectiveness of the tool. Following the execution and detailed monitoring, we will evaluate the tool, incorporate necessary changes and use the tool again on planning different sets of micro-grids.”
MIT will select four more Indian villages for the next phase of testing: Two will have solar micro-grids installed using existing methods, and two installed by using patterns selected by the MIT software. These villages will then be compared for the actual costs and performance of the systems to determine the benefits.
This is the right time for installing micro-grids. In keeping with the state’s new solar power policy, the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) earlier in April decided to keep only solar power units of more than 5 MW under the concerned acts for issuing licences. KSPCB chairman, Vaman Acharya, said this meant that public who installed solar power plants of capacity less than 5 MW need not get ‘No Objection Certificates’. Solar power comes under green category in the industry categorisation of Pollution Control Act.
“We’re hoping that public agencies eventually see the wisdom of mapping 100 million rural households…,” MIT News Office quoted Stewart Craine, chair of UN Foundation’s mapping group and head of DevelopmentMaps.org, a company offering satellite-based mapping services.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore> Others / by Nirad Mudur, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / April 13th, 2015