Sunshine success

By harnessing solar power in the mountain desert of Spiti, developers have saved the fragile ecology from both carbon pollution and unnecessary expenses on fuel and food

There's been a nearly four-month-long power cut in Spiti this year," says the manager of our hotel, handing us candles and solar lanterns. "We're so accustomed to darkness now that the harsh light from bulbs hurts the eye!" The next day, when we head to Demul, one of Spiti's remotest villages with a population of 332, we prepared for the dark. Instead, dozens of twinkling bulbs come on as soon as night approaches. "How do you have electricity?" I ask my host at the homestay, Gantuk Namgyal. He smiles proudly and said, "We've had a solar power station for the last four years in Demul … it's great to not depend on the power grid for power!"

As we sit in the warmth of his hearth and the light from the CFL bulb overhead, Namgyal explains how the social enterprise, Spiti Ecosphere, has built the 3Kw solar plant in the village. "Every family contributed Rs 1,000 as seed money, and Spiti Ecosphere put in the rest. Every household in Demul pays Rs 50 per month to receive power for three bulbs," he says.

"Spiti is a vulnerable ecological region that needs development, but can and is already being adversely affected by it," says Ishita Khanna, co-founder of Spiti Ecosphere, which has been promoting sustainable development in the area. One of its key initiatives has been to harness the ample sunlight for light and heat. Spitians traditionally burn dung, coal and wood to cook, heat water and warm their houses. "We realised that not only does this lead to high greenhouse gas emissions, it also makes the locals dependent on the government for subsidies," says Sunil Chauhan, co-owner of Ecosphere. In autumn, villagers would spend most of their working hours hunting for, and stocking up on fuel to sustain them through the harsh winter, when temperatures drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius.

Khanna and Chauhan worked with architects from the French NGO Groupe Energies Renouvelable Environnement et Solidarites, or GERES, to develop several strategies to substitute the traditional fuels with solar energy (with almost 250 sunny days a year, this is possibly the only ample natural resource available in this arid desert).

"Solar passive" houses have been one of their more successful ideas. These structures have double-glazed windows, insulated floors and walls that are designed to gather and trap the sun's heat in the winter. "We collaborated with GERES to develop south-facing, direct solar gain windows. These are large, double-panelled windows that can absorb the maximum possible heat from the sun which the insulated walls trap inside. Even when it is minus 20 degrees outside, the temperature inside a room like this can be as high as eight degrees, without artificial heating," explains Chauhan.

On average, a passive solar room would be able to reduce almost half the fuel wood consumption, says Chauhan. This translates to savings of Rs 10,000-20,000, depending on family size. In 2007, Khanna and Chauhan developed nine experimental solar passive houses. When the locals saw how well they worked, everyone wanted them! The following year, Spiti Ecosphere had a long list of applicants wanting them. They have built 310 such houses till now.

Spiti Ecosphere has also developed attached greenhouses - polythene-covered structures on wooden frames with a ventilator and door. "We've found that even when the outside temperature is around minus 10 degrees, the temperature inside these greenhouses can be as high as 42 degrees," says Chauhan. These, and the regular greenhouses that Ecosphere has designed, are warm living spaces, as well as the only way that people can grow spinach, coriander, onions and garlic in Spiti's harsh climate. "Greenhouses for vegetable cultivation lead to reduction in diesel emissions as fewer vegetables have to be transported from Rampur or Manali," says Chauhan. Some families with greenhouses are able to grow over half of their vegetable requirements, while those who sell them can earn up to Rs 10,000 a month. The benefits of these greenhouses have been so far-reaching that GERES was awarded the Ashden International Award in 2009.

The Demul model is easily replicable in regions with suitable amounts of sunlight. A 1.2 KW plant costs a mere Rs 4 lakh to set up. Spiti Ecosphere amply demonstrates that development needn't always be at the expense of the environment - that to give power to the people, all that sometimes needs to be done is to let the sun show the way.