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Karnataka, South West India, has recently announced in its state budget for 2017-18 a new project to develop five “Model Electricity Villages” in each of the 224 MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) constituencies. These new “Model Electricity Villages” will showcase efficient power consumption and sustainable energy usage.
As well as initiating measures for ensuring the efficient consumption of power, the scheme will provide the villages with new street lights and an increased electricity supply.
Climate Parliament in Karnataka has been advocating for low carbon development in the area since early 2016, urging and supporting legislators to take the lead on such projects. At a Climate Parliament roundtable on renewable energy for local area development in Bangalore on July 18th, 2016, Mr Aravind Bellad (MLA) introduced the new “Model Solar Village” in Haro Belavadi, Dharwad (led by Mr. Pralhad Joshi, MP, Dharwad) indicating that this innovative model could be replicated in other constituencies.
The Climate Parliament Network has endorsed the “Model Solar Village” at multiple levels of the state government, and this is the first time that the Energy Department in Karnataka has planned to create energy efficient villages across the state. The recent announcement of the “Model Electricity Village” scheme is in large part due to the constant effort of the Climate Parliament’s Karnataka network. A concerted drive to bring the innovative solar village model into mainstream discussions has succeeded in inspiring this ambitious new project which will have important implications for the future of India’s energy supply.