Report by Yashasvi Anika Tandon
What does it mean to be “off the grid”? In language, it means to not be in touch with anyone.
The phrase comes from, believe it or not, electricity supply!
Electricity is supplied through a series of wires that go all the way from the power station to homes. When a person is “off the grid” they are not connected to this power supply grid. Since electricity is needed even for the most basic human activity, a person “off the grid” is considered out of touch.
But a village in Gujarat has shown us that being off the grid can be a very empowering thing. This village, like many others in India, gets all its energy from locally generated solar power.
Modhera is an ancient village in Gujarat. It is also known for a famous sun temple.
Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi declared Modhera (Mehsana District) in Gujarat as India’s first village to be 100% solar powered and that too, 24/7. This means that the village has enough solar power to not get a power cut.
The achievement has been inspired by the Sun temple on the banks on the river Pashupavati here and is under the ‘Smart Gujarat’ project.
Earlier, the government supplied electricity. The citizens of Modhera don’t even need to pay for electricity, instead they will earn from the electricity that they produce and supply to the grid.
More than 1,300 solar panels have been placed on top of the roofs in every house in the village having a capacity of 1 kilowatt. There is also a ground-mounted solar power plant.
Rupees 80 crores have been spent and 12 hectares of land have been provided by both central and state governments for this project.
Each rooftop solar system is integrated with BESS – Better Energy Store System of 15 megawatts.
The BESS charges batteries during daytime with the energy from the sun. These batteries then provide electricity at night. This energy storage system project is grid connected. Even irrigation will be done using solar pumps. Many other projects were also launched along with this project.
