Power Up Conference—Cape Town by Maria

From October 7th to 11th, 2013, Project 90 by 2030, hosted an international conference for NGOs from Brazil, India and South Africa entitled: “Power Up! - a Just Energy Transition for the South”. The conference was focused on strategizing for better policies and implementation of renewable energy (RE). In all, around 30 participants attended. Four organization from India attended the conference—SPARC, Seva Kendra, Laya and Mahila Housing Sewa Trust; except for SPARC, the other organizations had some experience and expertise in working on energy.  SPARC’s aim was to assess the possibilities of using RE in the urban poor context to produce sustainable solutions for the rural communities.

Some interesting facts and figures in context to India as presented at the conference:

• Coal dominates with much of the demand (up to 40%) from industry. There is a very small RE component (12%) and nuclear only provides 2% of the country’s energy.
• 35% do not have access to electricity resulting in power outages, theft, illegal tapings and insufficient supply.
• Rural electrification is a major issue.
• 15% of the population uses more than 100 units, 6-7% have a larger energy footprint.
• With regards to RE, currently, 28GW, mostly from wind is being produced, although the capacity is 245GW; solar is on the rise.

Even though the government of India has introduced policies specific to RE, the policies are not consistent.  The question that remains is for whom the energy is being generated for and will it improve access and availability for marginalized? Secondly, with regard to the challenges to integrated energy plan of Energy Commission, what will be land and water issues, where will resources come from, what will be the impact on environment and peoples, etc.?

As part of the conference, three field trips were organized that showcased the RE projects: 

1. A wine estate which uses PV panels covering the majority of energy consumption. It also uses LED lighting and natural sunlight – mirrors and skylights to reflect light onto work spaces – and automatic closing of doors and insulation of storage.
2. An illegal informal settlement in Entakinini which has come up with a model of low cost housing using recyclable materials and installing a solar panel to provide the energy needs of community. The toilets have a roster, lock and bucket. Houses must take responsibility to clean. Feces would go to a biogas facility that will combine with food waste to be used in the project kitchen.
3. A community food garden in Khayelitsha run by a group of women. The gardens are used for food security and the excess sold to get income to sustain project. Food waste is collected and combined with water for energy for cooking.

 The common denominators across the countries which attended:

• Poor people are cross –subsidizing industry.
• Trust by government given to larger projects as compared to smaller ones.
• Focus on large and centralized structures and installations that are mostly corporate owned.
• People understand the politics behind production and distribution.

India’s Vision as seen through an exercise during the conference:

Currently, 95% of the country has electricity supply but huge gaps exist in continuous supply. The vision is to get electricity 24/7 to those that are electrified in the short term. RE will be stopgap through individual solar units. In the mid-long term (beyond 2020), surplus will be shared around country. By 2030, 100% will have access to continuous power supply and 50% of that power will be from RE sources.

In the words of Sheela, “There is a huge opportunity to produce alternative energy because traditional mechanisms cannot fill the gap. We as a small group of 3-4 NGOs felt that we are too small for a country as diverse and complicated as India. Visioning, especially a long-term one, was a utopian idea by itself. But we were taking more of a journey than a destination. Our devotion would be intimately connected to this destiny.”