Women barefoot solar engineers of A.P.

In distant, far-flung and hilly terrain provision of electricity through conventional grid doesn't stand feasible technically and economically. Apart from high transmission and distribution losses, there is drop of voltage at the end of a long line and also low load factor as bulk of the households do not have purchasing power to avail an electric connection. Therefore decentralized power generation systems based on solar energy proves attractive in such areas for meeting both the domestic and production sector energy needs. However unlike the conventional systems where the community is nearly the consumer of electricity supplied, these decentralized energy systems requires decentralized management where the community acts as producer, consumer as well as managers of such systems. Thus NIRD's approach puts emphasis on empowering the community with technical and managerial skills as a precondition for the success of rural energy programmes. The present paper discusses this unique experiment at NIRD, training four illiterate ladies from a self help group called KAMALA, on solar technologies and empowered them in producing lanterns, home lighting systems, street lights, and water pumps powered by solar energy. Today they have registered themselves as Women Barefoot Solar Engineers Association (WBSEA) and their activities speak of success stories in solar technologies in Andhra Pradesh.