Solarise Delhi campaigns Prove Success of SmartPower’s “Solarize” Model In India

Report proves groundbreaking on-line & on-the-ground community-based campaign scales rooftop solar technology in the second-most populous country in the world

WASHINGTON, DC, USA, April 22, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- SmartPower, one of the leaders of the ‘Solarise Delhi’ campaign, conducted as part of the U.S. – India Clean Energy Finance Task Force (Task Force) today released their final report on the success of the Solarise Delhi Campaigns.

The report, titled Solarise Delhi Campaigns: A Novel Approach to Create Demand for Residential Rooftop Solar in India demonstrates the success of SmartPower’s “Solarize” model in the world’s second most populous country and, more specifically, the potential of rooftop solar technology in major cities like Delhi Delhi where big land parcels aren’t available for large scale solar or wind projects.

SmartPower, a U.S.-based NGO, and the online solar platform WeeGreen, in collaboration with the New Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) worked closely with two Delhi power distribution companies - BSES Rajdhani Power Limited (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Limited to lead the campaign in the Delhi residential districts of Karkardooma and Safdarjung.

The Task Force is co-led by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources and India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The peer-to-peer campaign, carried out over a three-month period between November 2020 and January 2021, was designed to accelerate the adoption of rooftop solar in India. The campaigns targeted 28 residential colonies with 15,000 households, and engaged more than 400 consumers through virtual, awareness-building activities and an additional 1,000 consumers through interactions on two WeeGreen websites: Solarise Safdarjung and Solarise Karkardooma created specifically for the Solarise Delhi campaign.

"The spread of roof-top solar can be further accelerated in cities like Delhi through community-led demand aggregation programs like the ones being run by BSES. This Solarise Delhi campaign once again reemphasizes the importance of creating an eco-system that includes developers and financiers to further accelerate the adoption of roof-top solar," said a BSES spokesperson.

“Since Delhi is a city-state, there aren’t many opportunities to deploy large-scale solar or wind power plants within its boundaries. Notwithstanding the obvious limitations, Delhi could be powered by clean energy through rooftop solar installations. In this context, innovative demand aggregation models such as the Delhi Solarise campaign become quite crucial to spur organic growth of rooftop solar installations by households. This campaign leverages bonds within communities to educate households on the benefits and challenges associated with the technology and highlight ways to overcome them,” said Neeraj Kuldeep, Programme Lead, CEEW.

“The success of the SmartPower/WeeGreen campaigns in the United States has clearly translated to Delhi,” said Brian F. Keane, President of SmartPower. “The results we have seen in the Solarise Delhi Pilot Campaigns – even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic – demonstrate that Solarise has the potential to energize the Indian residential solar market the same way it is transforming the U.S. rooftop solar market. As we say in the United States – ‘Let’s Solarise!”

Nationwide, adoption of rooftop solar has been limited in India due to the high upfront cost of installation. As such, rooftop solar currently comprises just a little more than 12% of India’s total solar capacity of around 49GW. With an expanded Solarise effort nationwide,residential rooftop solar technology could be scaled up to 210 GW and is expected to play a significant part in India’s journey towards installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel-based power generation capacity by 2030.

The Solarise Delhi campaign highlighted that affordable credit for prospective rooftop solar consumers through innovative financial instruments will dramatically scale the sector. The full report can be viewed here.

About SmartPower:

SmartPower is a U.S.-based NGO, created in 2002 and operates with a belief that today’s clean energy solutions require the same consumer marketing approaches as traditional brands. Among many of its award-winning programs, SmartPower has perfected the on-the-ground outreach campaign known as “Solarize”. www.smartpower.org

About WeeGreen:

WeeGreen Inc is a software as a service (SaaS) company that helps companies and communities achieve their sustainability goals faster, easier and cheaper. Uniquely designed for peer-to-peer grassroots outreach WeeGreen helps accelerate the adoption of green products and services and helps companies meet their ESG goals. www.wee.green

About The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW):

CEEW is one of Asia’s leading not-for-profit policy research institutions. The Council uses data, integrated analysis, and strategic outreach to explain – and change – the use, reuse, and misuse of resources. It prides itself on the independence of its high-quality research, develops partnerships with public and private institutions, and engages with the wider public. In 2020, CEEW once again featured extensively across nine categories in the 2019 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report. The Council has also been consistently ranked among the world’s top climate change think tanks.

About The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Energy Resources:

The U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Energy Resources leads the Department's efforts to develop and execute international energy policy to promote energy security for the United States and its partners and allies; U.S. economic growth that benefits American business and people; and global political stability and prosperity through energy development.

Bob Wall
SmartPower
bwall@smartpower.org
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