The finalists will compete for over £120,000 prize money. The winners will be announced at a ceremony hosted in London on June 16, 2011.

According to Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy in London Pandey’s firm, Husk Power Systems, provides clean reliable power supply and cost less than the alternatives.

Carlo Jones, Ashden Awards Communications Officer, told BiharTimes over phone from London that access to affordable clean energy is fundamental to daily life and should be a basic right yet almost a quarter of the world’s population, that is, over 1.4 billion people live without access to electricity, and worldwide around 2.5 billion people still rely on wood and charcoal for cooking. Harnessing clean, local and affordable ways to meet the energy needs of the poor and to drive local industry is vital to any efforts to reduce poverty and to tackle the urgent issues of climate change and deforestation.

She said that since 2001 Ashden Award winners have improved the lives of 23 million people worldwide and together are saving over three million tonnes of CO2 a year "Our dream is a world where access to clean, affordable electricity and fuel can be enjoyed by the poor, transforming living standards, reducing CO2 emissions and easing the pressure on our dwindling forests. The 2011 Ashden Award finalists are making this vision a reality, and their potential for expansion and replication is high. It is our sincere hope that others are inspired to enable their growth and follow their lead,” she added.

Husk Power’s 70 plants gasify rice husks and other biomass waste to supply electricity to around 180,000 people and, by replacing kerosene, they cut greenhouse emissions by over 8,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. The company is growing rapidly, aiming for over 2,000 plants in operation by the end of 2014.

According to Ratnesh Yadav, Co-founder of Husk Power Systems, the HPS builds, owns and operates small biomass gasifier systems using waste rice husk as fuel to produce electricity mainly in off-grid areas of Bihar and UP that were dependent on kerosene or diesel generator sets, which are costly, polluting, dangerous and unhealthy. Using its own distribution network the electricity is sold to near by villages on pay-for-use basis. The basic rate is Rs 100 per month and villagers mainly use it for lighting and recharging cell phones, Ratnesh told BiharTimes.

The first plant started on August 15, 2007 at village Tamkuha, Madhuban block in West Champaran district. Since then, today HPS has about 70 plants spread across 325 villages. The whole system has been intentionally kept simple so that one does not need a highly trained person to operate or manage the machines. HPS provides trainning and job to local villagers and they are the ones who operate and manage the plants.

Due to availability of electricity that is reliable, renewable and affordable lot of changes have taken place in and arround the villages. Now shops remain open till late evening, new shops are coming up, there is a sense of security and cases of theft have come down. Even cases of snake bites are not reported.
School children can study at home at night. HPS also sends 250 kids to private school.

Comment

comments...

My heartiest congrats to these revolutionary Bihari's, who are silently bringing changes despite of neglect from the government and other political leaders. If Nitish Kumar has really any intention to solve power crisis in Bihar, he should appoint these guys as the chairman/ministers for electricity department. Otherwise with the kind of people prevailing there, everything will stand wasted in Bihar from talents like Husk Power to Bihar itself.
My salute to Husk Power Plant. May they make every villagers capable to read even in night and make them understand what light really means.

Ravi Shankar, PhD