We all know the world is getting hotter. Every year, global temperatures reach higher peaks, climate disasters grow increasingly extreme, and ocean tides rise. And statistics aside, we can all feel it. The beautiful time we spent outside in our childhoods is disrupted by heatwaves and flash floods, sparking fear for future generations.
A major chunk of the emissions contributing to this change can be attributed to fossil fuels, the world’s largest energy source. In India, fossil fuels account for over 50% of our energy generation sources, and while this is a decline from previous years, our continued reliance on unsustainable energy sources has dire consequences. Of course, in an increasingly urbanised world, we all rely on increasing amounts of electricity for our lifestyles, livelihoods, and basic functioning. To substantially reduce, or even eliminate, electrical usage is simply not a realistic possibility. The result of this consumption is a scary reality we must face, especially on a collective level.
Worst of all, climate change’s greatest victims are its lowest contributors. Across India’s diverse rural areas, rising temperatures and water levels pose risks to people’s health, resources, and livelihoods. These risks are amplified when you consider that, according to the Council of Electricity, Environment and Water, 2/3 of rural Indians lack access to daily reliable electricity sources. Electric access today also means access to alternative income sources and basic technologies that benefit community health and safety. These facts come together to form a tragic injustice: we are letting our rural communities down, often for our own benefit.
However, to acknowledge the truth does not mean we can or should admit defeat. Reliance on electricity and technology may use resources, but it also offers us the opportunity to find alternate new solutions. Technology lets us harness our imaginative power, we just have to channel it to do good.
The Bangladeshi company SOLshare is doing just that. As the world’s first peer-to-peer energy network, it allows communities to power themselves through connections between households. What does that mean? Basically, they equip rural households with solar panels, but instead of being self-reliant, these solar energy systems interconnect with other solar energy systems in the area. All of these connections come together to form a microgrid that distributes energy across households as it is needed. This process turns energy into a communal resource, allowing people to contribute back to their communities instead of wasting energy. It’s like when your mom cooks too much food and asks you to bring it to your neighbours; resources are shared as they are needed rather than hoarded and wasted.
Households that are using less energy than they are generating now also have a chance to make a profit. By charging for surplus electricity usage, people in rural areas have an additional, passive source of income that benefits the economy as much as it does their community. Ultimately, a bottom-up, democratised approach to energy distribution benefits those who need it most rather than feeding into the pockets of large-scale power corporations. This removes the number one obstacle facing our search for truly accessible energy: affordability.
Solutions like SOLshare quite literally give power back to the people. In India, households with no electrical access are limited because of the cost of energy. A decentralised system that is not dependent on payments to an external force, but rather keeps funds within the community, creates accessible opportunities for all.
This is not to say that SOLshare and similar systems are perfect solutions. Their dependence on the scale of their networks limits larger-scale electrical usage, complicating matters when it comes to the implementation of similar systems in urban areas. But isn’t the very existence of a system revolutionising modern energy a cause for hope? Firstly, there is no denying the benefits of decentralised power systems in rural areas, especially considering their lower rates of power consumption. To offer rural communities a reliable, affordable source of renewable energy, independent of external forces, is a triumph in and of itself. Moreover, SOLshare could be just the beginning of a promising new approach to energy generation.
Rather than dreading the future, we can redirect its course. Climate disaster does not have to be an inevitability, especially when the possibilities for innovation continually surpass previous expectations. We must look to companies like SOLshare as a model, not just for their product, but for their ability to utilise technology as a force for good.
To learn more about SOLshare, click here.
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