Planning your next CSR project? Why should you choose Solar?
To imagine life without electricity is almost impossible today. And yet, the challenge India faces with respect to electricity is formidable. About 300 million people lack electricity, while an additional 100 million have less than 4 hours of electricity per day, and possibly several million more suffer from an unreliable power supply. Electricity, which we city dwellers consider a necessity, is a luxury for a huge segment of the rural population in India.
As per the data in inforgraphics, India has been considered to have the largest un-electrified population in the world. On 29th April 2018, the Modi government announced 100% electrification of all inhabited villages in India. However, electrification of villages does not translate into electrification of households. According to the definition by the Union Power Ministry, a village is said to be electrified if at least 10% of the households in it have power connections. Hence, in spite of this landmark announcement made by the government, data show that there are still 31 million households without electricity.
Can something be done about it?
Absolutely! Solar power generation is the answer to bring about this much-needed change in our society. And through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), solar energy can now reach every nook and cranny of India. Let me explain why solar power projects have become the most sought-after CSR activity among leading companies.
One might assume that solar power projects come under the Environmental sector alone. To clear this misconception, here are some examples of CSR solar projects carried out by us under the various thematic areas mentioned in the figure.
- Education: Electricity can support education initiatives. In rural areas where electricity is scarce, children often are unable to study after sunset. Through our CSR projects, we have provided rural households with solar home lighting kits, with the help of which kids can now study after school hours as well. In addition, we have also installed solar rooftop systems in rural schools, providing them with uninterrupted power supply.
- Healthcare: Globally, India has the largest number of people still defecating in the open—more than 595 million individuals, including women and children. Therefore there is a very high risk for microbial contamination of water, which is the main cause of diarrhoea in children. Our drinking water and sanitation projects have provided safe and pure drinking water to millions of people. The benefits of this project include: safe water, better sanitation, rain water harvesting, ground water recharging, biogas generation and solid waste management. In addition, our solar lights have helped reduce the use of kerosene lamps for lighting purposes in rural households, hence preventing the inhalation of harmful fumes emitted by burning kerosene.
- Environment: Of course, with every single solar power system installation we are helping preserve the environment for the future generations. As it currently stands, solar capacity installed by Nimbus alone can be expected to offset over 1000 metric tons of CO2. To put things into perspective, this is equivalent to the amount of CO2 absorbed by 122 acres of trees (approx. 85,400 trees) per year.
- Livelihood: Our solar projects have provided several employment opportunities among the rural poor and urban poor classes of our society. In addition we have impacted the livelihoods of farmers by increasing their income from around Rs.30,000 to over Rs.1,00,000 through our irrigation and community farming projects
- Rural Development: With projects such as community farming, community water taps, solar microgrids, solar lift irrigation, drinking water projects, etc, we have worked extensively towards rural development.
In other words, whatever your main focus of interest for your next CSR venture, we have a project just for you. Just contact us and our team of experts can customise a project to suit your needs.
With climate change at touching distance from us, environmental protection is the need of the hour. And with the right CSR initiatives, we can achieve this goal together.