One of the oldest "People's electricity" systems I have ever seen (Please read the notes for each of the videos). Of course this trip had even better high points - wine made from Gooseberry and Nutmeg - all locally brewed. So travelling in the midst of hills, sipping local wine, seeing some great work, (and providing perspectives for someone-else to write - is this work or what?
People's Electricity in Pathanpara, Kerala, PART 1
People's Electricity in Pathanpara, Kerala, PART 2
People's Electricity in Pathanpara, Kerala, PART 3
Learning groundwater with Children
Testing a Microhydro product
Here is a quick snapshot of the work of a company focussed on developing small-scale renewable energy resources development products and services in our very own Bengaluru. Prakruti Hydro Labs has figured out that there is a right balance of standardisation and customisation necessary to deliver electricity solutions to remote places in the hills. And so they have a basic product that gets "customised" for each customer's house who has access to a small streams falling over a range of heights (anywhere from 3m to 20m). They have to test performance of their product over a range of field conditions. And they have to test every piece they manufacture for the specific case in which that piece gets deployed - so they need a test rig that can simulate the field conditions.
This is their test rig.
A microhydro product testing set up, Prakruti Hydro labs, Bangalore
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