Forum

A group of farmers (middle, poor, marginalized) have come up with an idea of implementing the community based initiative on solar power harvesting and sell back to government Bescom in Karnataka  Bescom has implemented the smart grid. The farmers do not belong to a funded, non-funded NGO, though they are loose members of Organic farmers association.

This is still in an "Ideas" stage. I have offered to provide project management, coordination, feasibility and other services pro-bono, to provide much needed external skills.

In this context, I am looking forward to the following:

1.Successful / Failed case studies- either community based or individual, highlighting organization and the Return on Investment

2.The local prices of components of solar system- Panel, invertors, battery etc, are very high compared to international prices (there is fall in intl. market prices)..Are there any organizations that can implement solutions at nominal profit, treating this as a social enterprise. One idea is some organization helping in import and taking up installation, commissioning work locally

3.Are there corporate, environmental organizations willing to treat this as part of the CSR initiative

4.Any contacts, weblinks, pointers, resource material will be of great help

5.These are poor and marginal farmers (50 persons, spread across 4 villages) owning 1 - 2 acres of land in Dharwar , Karnataka, they aspire to augment, supplement their agricultural income (given the fact the yields are low, what with El Nino type of conditions)..one good thing is the region is blessed with 40 degrees for 6 months, and around 30 degrees for the rest of the year..

Thanks

Raghu