Air pollution is responsible for 12.5 percent of all deaths in India. It is fatal for 1,00,000 children below five every year. Solar entrepreneurs in India are expanding the scope of clean energy in homes and workplaces.
Tribal Titan
Thirty-year-old Kiran Chukkapalli left a career in Mumbai’s entertainment world to establish the NGO ‘Think Peace’ in 2010, which has lit up 230 hamlets using 11,000 solar lamps in and around Araku Valley in Andhra Pradesh.
His vision was born during a visit to the power-starved tribal village Gemulput which lies 100 km away from urban Visakhapatnam. Seeing their plight, he donated 42 handheld solar-powered lights to tribal villagers.
Kiran was fascinated by “the innocence and the enterprise of the Girijans”. He has adopted the villages as his way of “giving back”.
‘Think Peace’ has evolved holistic healthcare and education projects for two- to six-year-old children in tribal hamlets. An informal curriculum imparts knowledge, not education, through songs, dance, poetry and other fun mediums to kids.
As part of the Arogyam project, Think Peace will launch a project to blend age-old tribal health care wisdom with virtual medicine next year, teaching villagers to use technology to assume individual charge of their health.
He has invited NGOs in similar sectors to adapt his plan locally for best results. Dependent on volunteers and donors, Kiran has roped in cinema celebrities and corporates to promote and fund the healthcare initiatives and free pre-school education for toddlers.
Sun Signs
The Indian summer is an energy thirsty beast, which feeds on nuclear plants and rivers to meet the c
ountry’s power needs. In 2016, clean energy pioneers Pranesh Chaudhury and Sushant Sachan tapped the sun and set up Zunroof to provide solar rooftop energy to over 10,000 buildings across 40 cities.
Today, it is the largest solar energy provider for Indian homes with real time app-driven monitoring of 1 kW to 70 kW of electricity given to homes, small factories, schools and hospitals.
Zunroof’s state-of-the-art technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality to design innovations, provide hassle-free service, maintenance and diagnostics have made it the market leader.
For his efforts, the government awarded Chaudhury the Young Entrepreneur Award. The company’s total installed capacity has crossed 10 MW by now.
Electrically Energetic
DOT, India’s fastest-growing green mobility solutions provider, has hi-speed two- and three-wheeler electric vehicles on the road in over 20 cities, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Bengaluru.
Its major clients are Amazon, Swiggy, Walmart, Grofers, McDonald’s, Fresh Menu, among others. Over the next few years, DOT aims to expand to Canada, Southeast Asia and China. “We are outdoing the industry growth rates.
We have recently added Raipur, Jhansi, Meerut, Haridwar and Phagwara to our list, which is our growth trigger in the green mobility sector,” says Vineet J Mehra, Founder, DOT, who has years of experience in steel, iron ore, mining, and sustainable development sectors.
After successfully leading several multi-billion dollar projects, he moved to the green startup, whose vision statement promises to reduce ‘carbon footprints across the globe’. Vineet believes in the efficacy of electric vehicles and making compatible automobiles to cut down on CO2 emissions.
Spreading Small
Cyclone Gaja, which hit the Tamil Nadu coast in December 2018, plunged the worst-hit Vedaranyam village into darkness and despair.
The brutal aftermath spurred brothers R Balasundharam, R Jayaraj and R Murali to distribute pocket-sized nano LED lights with the capacity to work for 30 days on a single charge if used only for three hours a day.
The funds and know-how came after they set up Hitech Project Industries near Tharangambadi, Nagapattinam district, in 2007 to develop sustainable energy products.
“We were inspired by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to create innovative sustainable energy applications. Since the company’s reach is mostly rural, we sell our products at low profit margins to promote options for the public and marginalised sections,” says Murali, chairman of the company.
To reduce ocean pollution, they have developed a mechanism to drag fiberglass boats back to the shore of coastal villages using a mechanical winch.
The company produces solar agro-sprayers, solar-powered multipurpose bicycles, and a system that increases the performance of solar panels.