Status of Rural Electrification in India, Energy Scenario and People’s Perception of Renewable Energy Technologies
Keywords:
Rural electrification, renewable energy, reliability, cost, environment, safety.Abstract
Energy is at the heart of most critical economic, environmental and
developmental issues facing the world today. Clean, efficient, affordable
and reliable energy services are indispensable for global prosperity.
Several local and global factors, including climate change, population
increase and future energy security are the driving factors to the desire
for universal access to renewable energy technologies. Social attitudes
and lack of knowledge and awareness are major challenges to overcome,
to successfully introduce low carbon technologies as a sustainable
alternative to more traditional means of energy provision. This article
presents a review of the status of rural electrification in India and
decentralized renewable energy technology options. The work details
different initiatives taken by the government of India for electrification
of villages and steps taken to promote decentralized energy generation
technologies. The study includes the results of a rural energy survey
conducted in a typical village in the Indian state of Karnataka. It highlights
the opportunities and attitudes of the rural communities towards
sustainable modern energy services and the technologies used to deliver
them. Results from the survey show that there is interest among the people
in using sustainable or renewable technologies for energy provision. The
findings suggest that, while selecting a fuel source, the most influencing
factors are cost, reliability and ease of use. These factors score higher than
environmental benefits and safety issues; hence, the focus should be on
creating awareness among rural people about decentralized renewable
energy technologies
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