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Applications
Barefoot College has been applying solar energy as an
alternative source of lighting (solar home lighting units), heating (solar water heaters), cooking
(parabolic solar cookers) and drinking water (solar powered desalination plant) since 1989.
The collective efforts of more than a 1,000 illiterate and semi-literate rural men and women,
across 16 states of India and 17 of the least developed countries in the world, have managed
to save more than 30,000 litres of kerosene per month from polluting the atmosphere and have
reduced the drudgery of women across 3 continents. Mothers, grandmothers and young girls who
spent hours fetching kerosene, wood, candles and torch batteries at very high costs, can spend
quality time doing other productive work and studying. The money that was spent on procuring
these fuels for lighting, heating and cooking can be saved or put to better use.
Solar Lighting
It is estimated that a rural family in Africa burns around 60 litres of kerosene a year to
light its home. After food, their highest expenditure is on lighting and a kerosene lamp in
Africa spews out an average of a ton of CO2 in less than 10 years. To make matters worse,
families generally cook indoors on wood fires. The health effects of burning kerosene, coal
and wood are staggering, toxic smokes cause respiratory diseases that kill 1.6 million women
and children every year and cause severe respiratory problems for tens of millions.
Fixed home lighting units and solar lanterns powered by solar energy can replace kerosene
and wood and improve the health of the people as well as the environment.
Since the introduction of solar lighting units in rural communities children have been
able to study even after dark. They no longer need to strain their eyes while studying
in dim kerosene lamp light thanks to the adequate light emitted by the CFL-based solar lights.
This specially holds true for more than 50,000 children in India who have attended Barefoot
Night Schools after sunset because they work at home and herd livestock during the daytime.
Poor families, whose earning hours were restricted to the daytime, have now been able to
increase their income by working for longer hours in solar lighting. Sixty-one women artisans
from the desert district of Barmer in Rajasthan have specially been provided with solar lanterns
to be able to do intricate appliqué work on fabric after nursing their children and doing housework
in the day. The Barefoot College has applied solar energy not just to increase income but also bring
a sense of financial self-reliance among women.
The Barefoot College has harnessed solar energy not only to provide light but also to create
employment for the unemployable, to boost income for poor rural communities, to give a sense
of well-being, purpose and confidence to Barefoot solar engineers, to save the environment by
reducing carbon emission, to prevent millions of litres of kerosene from polluting the atmosphere
and to conserve thousands of tons of trees from being cut to provide energy.
Barefoot College provides its users a choice between two kinds of solar lighting units –
Fixed Home Lighting Systems and Solar Lanterns.
Fixed Home Lighting Unit
A semi-portable eco-friendly lighting system designed for rural area development where
minimal lighting is needed to carry out day-to-day activities even in the dark.
Four hours of lighting is available at any time one wants. Therefore, it is dependable
unlike grid electricity supply. Users can choose between:
- 12V, 20W fixed home lighting unit: includes 1 solar lamp (12V, 9W), 1 photovoltaic module
(12V, 20W), 1 tubular battery (12V, 20AH) and 1 charge controller (12V, 8Amp).
- 12V, 40W fixed home lighting unit: includes 2 solar lamps (12V, 9W), 1 photovoltaic module
(12V, 40W), 1 tubular battery (12V, 40AH) and 1 charge controller (12V, 8Amp).
- 12V, 80W fixed home lighting unit: includes 4 solar lamps (12V, 9W), 1 photovoltaic module
(12V, 80W), 1 tubular battery (12V, 75AH) and 1 charge controller (12V, 8Amp).
Solar Lantern (12V, 10W)
A solar lantern is a portable lighting system suitable for both indoor as well as outdoor lighting.
On a full charge it can provide light for four hours every day. A solar lantern is like a mini
system with everything in-built except a module. A 12V, 10W solar lantern consists of a CFL tube (7W),
1 SMF battery (12V, 7AH), an electronic circuit placed in a main housing and a photovoltaic module (12V, 10W).
Parabolic Solar Cooker
Barefoot College set up the Women Barefoot Solar Cooker Engineers Society (WBSCES) in Tilonia,
Rajasthan in November, 2003. It is the first association of illiterate and semi-literate women who
independently fabricate, install and maintain 2.5 square metre parabolic solar cookers. A parabolic
solar cooker uses sunlight energy to cook food. Its shape and construction allows the sun’s rays to
fall on 300 mirrors that in turn reflect them onto the bottom of a cooking pot and cook food quickly.
Parabolic solar cookers work well in places that receive abundant sunlight such as Rajasthan, India. A
parabolic solar cooker is eco-friendly since it does not use fossil fuel, wood or battery to cook food.
It helps in conserving trees especially in places where they are scarce. Women who spent long hours searching
for firewood need not do so anymore, their time can be better spent in other productive activities.
All forms of cooking (such as frying, boiling and steaming) that are possible on a gas stove, are possible
on the solar cooker. Twenty litres of water can be boiled within an hour making possible even large-scale
catering. It can easily boil water for vegetables, rice and lentils as well. As parabolic solar cookers
can only be used during sunlight hours, cooks who work in the daytime would find it a very useful addition
to their kitchen.
A parabolic solar cooker may not be portable but it is user friendly. The only attention it needs is adjustment
once in the morning and it will track the sun all day by itself leaving one free to cook uninterruptedly for
the rest of the day! An in-built spring and clock system is accurately set to complete one rotation every 3.23
minutes, which in turn rotates the cooker to track the sun throughout the day.
Building a parabolic solar cooker demands high accuracy and skill in metal craftsmanship. A craft that has
traditionally been synonymous with men is today being practiced by 6 women. The cooker weighs 130 kg and is
fabricated to precise measurements by bending, welding and cutting in a matter of just one month. There is no
scope for inaccuracy as it will result in the cooker not working at all. Almost 100 people including 80 women
have been trained make and cook on parabolic solar cookers.
Parabolic solar cookers produced by the WBSCES have been installed in 9 villages and are meeting the eating
needs of more than 400 people every day. They have been installed in the College field centres at Kadampura,
Tikawda, Singla, Jawaja, Solavta, Nalu and Tilonia in Rajasthan.
Dimensions- length: 280cm, breath: 170cm, height: 250cm
Space required for installation- length: 305cm and breath: 305cm
Price (excluding tax and transportation/installation charges): INR.13, 000
To view the pamphlet for parabolic solar cookers please click here
Solar Water Heater (SWH)
Barefoot College began developing solar water heaters in a small way in the year 2000. It
was initiated so that rural communities could have access to a smoke free and eco-friendly
source of heating water as well as to generate employment for unemployed rural youth. For the
initial training, 19 semi-literate men were chosen to represent the College sub-centres in Assam,
Bihar, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, and
sent for a month’s training workshop in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. There they learnt to fabricate,
install, repair and maintain solar water heating units consisting of a boiler, collector, storage tank,
pipes and tap(s).
Solar water heaters are made by rural Barefoot fabrication engineers. They are eco-friendly products
because they only partially depend on electricity to pump up water to the storage tank and use sunlight
instead of wood or gas to heat water. They are ideal for communities that need large quantities of hot water.
Solar water heaters provide continuous supply, and therefore are useful for people living cold places.
They are available in two varieties – oil-based and non oil-based. Oil-based solar water heaters do not
allow the stored water to freeze. Users have a choice between tank capacities of 100 litres (ideal for 5 persons),
200 litres (ideal for 10 persons) and 300 litres (ideal for 20 persons).
More than 70 solar water heaters have been manufactured and are benefiting hundreds of people living in
rural, remote villages in 8 states of India. Literacy is not a criterion for training as more than 30
semi-literate and illiterate rural youth from Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Jammu and
Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand have successfully trained in fabricating solar water heaters.
Prices for SWH (excluding tax and transport/installation charges):
100litre capacity: INR.15, 000, space required for installation (l x b x h): 5metre x 5metre x 4metre
200litre capacity: INR.30, 000, space required for installation (l x b x h): 6metre x 6metre x 4metre
300litre capacity: INR.45, 000, space required for installation (l x b x h): 7metre x 7metre x 4metre
Weight of SWH unit: 100litre: 115 kg, 200litre: 150kilograms, 300litres: 192 kilograms
Solar Powered Desalination Plant
In September 2006, Barefoot College set up India’s first ever solar powered Reverse Osmosis plant for
desalination at a small voluntary organisation called Manthan established in Kotri. Kotri, a small
village with 300 families, is located in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan. The RO plant is also the first
in India to be installed in a village. Apart from this potable water project, Manthan has been working on
rain water harvesting, channelling water from the school rooftops into underground tanks. Manthan is running
night schools for children who work during the daytime, and is implementing a preventive health programme
at the village level.
The Barefoot College interacted with the scientists from the Central Salt and Marine Chemical Research
Institute (CSMCRI) for over 6 months to design a tailor-made and relatively small desalination plant
that could be managed, repaired and operated by members of the rural community. CSMCRI installed the
plant and trained two Barefoot solar engineers to operate and maintain it.
The RO plant is powered by a 2.5KW power plant which helps it to produce 600 litres of water per hour,
for 6 hours every day. Even though Kotri is ‘electrified by grid’ it barely receives supply for three
hours in the whole day and that too is erratic. For this reason the plant has been solar electrified to
ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity for 6 hours, with some power to spare for a computer, a solar
workshop, fans and light.
The RO plant reduces the locally available brackish water with a salinity of Total Dissolved Solid
(TDS) 4000-6000ppm to 450ppm only, making the water not just sweet but also safe to drink! The plant
meets the drinking water needs of more than 1,000 men, women and children from Kotri and its surrounding
villages. Each family can take 40 litres of water every day for token amount of Rs.10 per month.
The brackish water, coming to the village through the government pipelines, is pumped through the RO
plant and is stored in a 5,000 litre tank. The plant consists of components that are simple and easily
available, a booster pump that costs INR 4,000, a sand filter, a cartridge and a carbon filter that
prevents waste and impurities in the water from mixing with the desalinated water. It costs INR.15.5
lakhs to install a mini-RO plant specially designed for operating in a village to bring drinking water
to its rural community.
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