CSR: Corporates Can Incubate And Nurture New Ideas In Energy Sector
There will be no resources left at the way humans are consuming energy. The Indian government is aiming to develop cost effective and efficient solar power stove systems. The intention is to touch the lives of poor by providing them safe and low cost alternatives for clean household cooking.
Recently, ONGC held a Solar Chulha Challenge’ exhibition, to promote solar chulha in order to reach out to the last mile of the society. “This innovation would significantly impact the nation’s dependence on imported fuel in one stroke”, the PM Narendra Modi had said.
Clean cooking alternatives need to be made available to the commonest of common citizens of the country. Integrated solar systems can provide multi-purpose utility.
The team from IIT Bombay won the challenge, claiming prize money of Rs 10 lakhs. The submission titled ‘Design and development of Solar PV powered electric stove for domestic application’ was chosen by the expert panel of scientists headed by Dr Anil Kakodkar, Former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission. Their Cooking solution is named as Solar Intelligent Cook-stove with Storage (or SIX stove).
Smokeless Cookstove Revolution (SCR) is a project saving lives by teaching rural villagers how to make clean burning chulhas without any cost. It has the ambitious target of saving over 1 million lives in the coming 10 years. Nitisha Agrawal, a Mumbai resident quit her lucrative corporate career to pursue work in the development sector. She has gone into the field numerous times with this project since late last year, and having seen the impact it can have, she is now dedicating all her passion to this cause.
The idea started when Australian inventor Russell Collins was experimenting with clay as a material for his stoves in Ladakh. He was working on a social enterprise called Himalayan Rocket Stove in the mountains when he realised that he couldn’t get the high-tech materials he needed to make his stoves work.
After searching for a local solution, he came up with a way of using clay that changed its nature from being heat absorbing to heat repelling. This made it possible to make clay tubes for his commercial stoves, and in the process, came to realise that he had stumbled on a simple and incredibly affordable way to make smokeless chulhas (cookstoves) using well established ‘rocket stove’ technology. He decided to start a not for-profit project in parallel with his commercial stove venture, and called it the ‘Smokeless Cookstove Revolution’.
Corporates need to come forth and aid in the endeavour for start-ups by providing monetary support for innovation to reach different regions across the nation. To foster, nurture and incubate new ideas related to the energy sector.
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