Lack of energy access limits the rural economy. But reliable electricity creates an infrastructure for rural entrepreneurs and gives people a chance to work on their aspirations.

In rural India, decentralised renewable energy options – primarily solar power – are creating livelihood and business opportunities. Decentralised renewable energy systems are primarily independent of the central power grid and the energy is generated close to its area of use. To address daily issues that arise out of lack of power, startups and organisations are creating and modifying decentralised renewable energy (DRE) solutions in India’s villages, burgeoning towns and metros.

In this episode of GigaWhat, Mongabay-India Contributing Editor and the podcast host, Mayank Aggarwal, speaks with startup founders and managers to learn the innovations happening in the DRE sector that are helping to boost the livelihoods of people in India’s hinterlands.

Produced and scripted by Kartik Chandramouli

Edited and mixed by Tejas Dayananda Sagar

Copy edits by Priyanka Shankar

Production assistance from Ayushi Kothari

GigaWhat artwork by Pooja Gupta

Guests:

Ananth Aravamudan,  Sector Lead - Climate Action, Villgro (Powering Livelihoods

Kunal Vaid, Director, Resham Sutra

Abhishek Pathak, Founder, Greenwear

Manish Kumar, Staff Reporter, Mongabay-India

Links:

Mongabay series: Clean Energy

Solar mini-grids fuel women-led enterprises in Jharkhand’s Gumla district

Decentralised solar setups give power access to small farmers, facilitate innovations

Framework to promote decentralised RE livelihood applications

Powering Livelihoods Globally through Clean Energy, a GCF-CEEW report.

The Future of Distributed Renewable Energy in India