India was once characterised as the ‘virgin field of electrification’ by a constituent assembly member K Santhanam. After a long and tumultuous journey of 70 years, India achieved the milestone of electrifying all the inhabited census villages in India in April 2018 by providing electricity access to 18,374 villages under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana. Further, the Government of India electrified 2.8 crore households under Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (PM SAUBHAGYA) to achieve universal household electrification in 2021. It took around seventy years to shed off electrical virginity completely but are these statistics enough to assert that energy poverty has ceased to exist in India?

The Encyclopedia of Social Work by Oxford University Press defines energy poverty as a ‘lack of access to adequate, high-quality, clean, and affordable forms of energy or energy systems’. Going by this definition, even with the sustained dedicated efforts by the government, there lies vast scope to alleviate the energy poverty in India.

Electricity is primarily used for lighting, cooking, transport, heating (seasonal) etc. India generates around three-fourths of its electricity from coal. Given the impetus to phase down coal in the wake of climate change, it risks returning to the energy-poor era. Unlike renewables such as solar, wind and hydro, coal is not considered a clean and modern source of energy. From the perspective of the environment, the electricity generated from coal is not of high quality notwithstanding reliability and affordability.

One of the effective strategies to address energy poverty is the Decentralised Renewable Energy (DRE) such as off-grid solar, wind and biomass electricity generation. It has vast potential to ensure a steady supply of electricity to the remote and underserved communities inhabiting inaccessible and poorly connected areas. One such example is Bihar’s first solar village- Dharnai. It got connected to a solar mini-grid in 2014 and the residents embraced the experience of glowing bulbs and rotating fans for the first time. There are further examples of such off-grid solar, wind, and hybrid energy systems in operation in Gujarat, Karnataka, and Rajasthan. The DREs have far-reaching positive effects across the economy, health, education, environment etc. However, the lack of maintenance and repair of mini-grids poses a severe challenge to electricity access as was reflected in the case of Dharnai itself. After three years of being operational, the mini-grid became defunct due to a lack of maintenance and unavailability of funds.

In addition to providing access to electricity, the DRE can be leveraged to support the people’s livelihoods. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has devised the framework for the promotion of decentralised renewable energy livelihood applications to guide central and state government departments, ministries and other stakeholders. The framework encapsulates that apart from providing energy access and job creation, the DRE would help in achieving self-reliant India by scaling up the current DRE livelihood applications and supporting the development of new DRE livelihood applications. The DRE-based livelihoods have vast applications in agriculture, agro-processing, dairy, poultry, fisheries, tailoring etc.

The DRE livelihood applications require a holistic ecosystem incentivised to (i) deliver efficient appliances, ensure supply chains for manufacturers, operation and maintenance services, (ii) access to credit, (iii) robust backward and forward linkages by ensuring supply of inputs and market access, (iv) capacity building in the form of skill development and training, (v) dedicated cross-sectoral policies and de-risking tools. These five components facilitate an enabling environment for livelihoods based on DRE to thrive sustainably. The DRE livelihoods applications have immense potential in increasing agricultural production, powering rural businesses, improving community services such as healthcare and education, creating new business ventures, empowering women and developing sustainable tourism.

However, the intermittency related to solar and wind affects the reliability of the power supply and this problem is exacerbated by insufficient energy storage solutions. The rural areas may have a lack of access to mechanical and technical expertise to repair DRE-powered appliances. Even the high upfront cost of the DRE and the appliances and inaccessibility of the subsidies and the finances discourage the uptake of DRE-based livelihoods. The projects and benefits relying on the grants and subsidies may even suffer in terms of economic sustainability. Inadequate understanding of the advantages of new technology can lead to resistance to their adoption. Barriers may also come from cultural preferences for conventional energy sources. In case of over-reliance on biomass for energy could lead to deforestation and environmental degradation if not managed sustainably. Waste management issues related to solar panel disposal and recycling must be addressed.

DRE systems provide a viable option for reducing energy poverty while fostering sustainable development. In energy-poor areas, deploying renewable energy solutions should be prioritised to build resilient, self-sufficient communities that not only boost local economies but also positively impact global environmental goals. The broad implementation and integration of DRE technologies will determine the direction of energy access in the future and will be a major step towards just and sustainable global development.

The writer is a research scholar, energy studies programme, at School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi