Dr. Priya Sreedharan of E3 recently returned from field work in remote villages of India with little or no connectivity to existing electrical grids. This field work supported a study being conducted for Azure Power, a solar power developer in India, in which the feasibility of off-grid solar PV microgrids are being explored for rural communities. The work falls under the auspices of a USTDA grant award to Azure.
The team met with the community and conducted detailed surveys, and engaged with the state renewable agencies. They explored the opportunities and challenges for solar PV microgrids in these communities. The information collected will be used to complete the development of a business model for these microgrids. The field work was led by Richard Engel of the Schatz Energy Research Center and was supported, in addition to E3, by Varesh Energy of New Delhi.
Top left frame, from left: Team members Richard Engel (Schatz Energy Resource Center), Varun Agarwal (Varesh Energy), Brendon Mendonca (Schatz Energy Research Center), Aditi Jain (Varesh Energy), Priya Sreedharan (E3).
Top right frame far right: Shobhit Goel (Varesh Energy).
Bottom right frame, 2nd from left: Neelu Choudhary (Varesh Energy)
