'Stakeholders need to come together for clean energy access'

All stakeholders must come together to provide sustainable energy to people deprived of electricity, a study released today said.
The WWF India-SELCO Foundation study - titled Deployment of Renewable Energy Solutions for Energy Access: An Ecosystem Approach - provides a broad ecosystem based approach for providing clean energy access and promoting productive uses of energy solutions that enhance livelihood opportunities using renewable energy solutions.
The study report formulates an inclusive renewable energy implementation model that takes into account the complete business ecosystem, including technology, finance (capital and end user), capacity building, institutional framework, policies and livelihood aspects of renewable energy applications.

"We need to look at every stakeholder, every factor associated with clean energy access. Unless we look at the entire scenario and bring all the actors together, we will only be coming up with piecemeal solution," WWF-India Programme Director Sejal Worah said.
Besides, she said there is need to look at solutions not only in terms of lighting but other requirements of the community such as water pumping and purification.
SELCO Foundation CEO Harish Hande said, "The report comes at a timely moment after CoP21 and displays our commitment as a country to creating energy access solutions that simultaneously address developmental and environmental challenges."

He said the interventions proposed can be replicated not only in India but also in other parts of the developing world.

WWF-India works towards the conservation of biodiversity, natural habitats and the reduction of humanity's ecological footprint.
Looking at which smart home applications hold most appeal
for China's consumers, the picture is also extremely encouraging with all areas scoring above the international average. 'Security and control' and 'entertainment and connectivity' came first equal with 63 percent of people selecting these - but very closely followed by 'health monitors' (62 percent), 'smart appliances' (61 percent) and 'energy and lighting' (60 percent).

Japan: only one in five people think smart home tech will impact them Japan shows the most muted response to smart home technology of all countries included in the study. Consumer awareness of the smart home concept stands at just over half (53 percent), but knowledge is low at only 30 percent. In addition, only one in five (19 percent) believe that smart home technology will make an impact on their lives in the next few years. Putting this into perspective, 37 percent believe mobile payment have an impact in their lives, 22 percent say the same for cloud computing and 20 percent for wearables.

When asked about the appeal of different smart home applications, Japanese consumers show most affinity for 'security and control' (31 percent), followed by 'health monitors' (25 percent) and 'energy and lighting' equal with 'smart appliances' (both at 24 percent).
South Korea: one in two people expect smart home tech to impact their lives Awareness of the smart home concept is high in South Korea, standing at 88 percent, while 62 percent also claim some level of knowledge.
In addition, over a half (56 percent) of South Korean consumers believe smart home technology will impact their lives, putting this just ahead of mobile payment (54 percent) and connected cars (50 percent). But the most popular technology of all in South Korean is 3D printing, with 62 percent choosing this. The smart home application areas that have most appeal in South Korea are 'security and control' (54 percent), followed by 'energy and lighting' (44 percent), 'health monitors' (42 percent) and 'smart appliances' (40 percent).