Rotary club of Pune Hillside and Rotary Club of Pune Yuva have successfully completed many social projects in the field of Education, public Health, Water Conservation, both for drinking and Agriculture, Sanitation, and recently completed the project, in the Generation of Electricity through Solar energy, which is abundantly available in our country. These Solar Energy projects play a significant role in reducing Carbon emissions, which are caused presently by using Coal or burning coal for the generation of 60% electricity in India.
This project aspires to provide Solar Energy Solutions to 42 rural and semi- urban schools, and more than 300 poor and underprivileged households. Last year our clubs completed a similar project for the village of Hatve Budruk, Tal. Bhor, and its success inspired many other households to demand such a project, on a bigger scale. Our clubs approached the same donor, Emerson Electric Company India Pvt. Ltd., Pune office, to provide funds for the bigger project on the same lines. This was really an ambitious project for us.
Rooftop solar project is an environment project worth One Crore Sixty One lakhs rupees.
It is the biggest environment project among all India rotary environmental projects.
60% of Bharat's or India's electricity is made by burning coal. This causes global heating and big damage to the environment. Also, the coal has to be imported for a
heavy price. So making electricity by an alternative process contributes a lot to the cause of the country and the globe.
Also, by reducing the electricity bill there is economic support for the farmers. This is very valuable to them.
Governments want electricity made this way. So it is supporting the population to execute the project.
This project was completed successfully in three months. The media gave it good coverage.
After the success of last year's project CSR was received for 250 more houses this year.
Only Schools and houses having a MSEDCL connection with Individual meters have been selected. Their average needs are less than what will be generated by the Solar Installation.
The Provision of In Grid Solar Generation ranging from 1 KW to 15 KW depending on the Average Consumption and MSEDCL Bills of the Schools and houses, will ensure that all the Electricity generated by the Roof top Solar plant, will be fed into the MSEDCL grid and the Schools and households will not have to pay any bills. The Plants have a life of 20 years and no maintenance costs.
The Beneficiary Schools will be able to use the money saved from paying light bills to provide better Educational Infrastructure and improve the Quality of Education in these schools and Households will be able to use the saved money for better nutrition and education of their children.
It will also lead to
Compared to earlier project, the geographical spread for 42 schools was quite vast. Same was the case for houses as well. Now we were to cover around 250 houses not only from Hatve Budruk ,but from nearby villages too. Hence, Rotary requested
the company to extend the duration of the project till 31st March 2026. After discussions, company acceded to our request.
LOCATION : As the company suggested to look for schools in the Chakan – Talegaon belt and around, we invited applications from rural and semi-urban schools around Chakan, Talegaon and Rajgurunagar area. Certain criteria were set for selection, with preferences.
42 schools were finally selected, after critical evaluation of the needs of individual schools. We sought help from our fellow Rotarians from local Rotary clubs. They are R.C. Chakan, R.C. Rajgurunagar, R.C. Talegaon Dabhade operating in their respective places. They physically visited all schools and submitted detailed reports as to the number of classes, students, grades etc. A few schools were serving for physically / mentally challenged students, and a few offered vocational courses such as nursing etc. These were also added to our list.
Vendors were selected by interviewing them, cost negotiations were made, and then a work order was placed.After actual work started, we came across 3 schools, who could not meet the criteria laid by MSEDCL for Solar Net Meters. Hence, they had to be deleted from the list. 3 new schools meeting the criteria were added to it.
The solar panels with stands were fitted on the roofs. The number of panels depended on how many KW electricity we planned to generate. Generation meters, Net, meters were fitted. Anti-lightening rods were fitted. Earthing was done.
CHALLENGES FACED :
We, along with the Vendors, had to overcome many challenges.
Location : Village Hatve Budruk, Taluka Bhor, District Pune, Maharashtra, India
Bhor taluka is all agricultural taluka. This village, Hatve budruk, has 80% population in agriculture. 20% the population is supportive of agriculture. Majority farmers have lands holding less than five acres.
So, houses have roofs of cheap tin, a few have 'Kaulas' made of baked clay.
These are 271 households. There are four wadis or groups of hamlets, and a bigger group or main village, constitutes the whole village.
So in an economic sense, we can call it a poor village.
The roof of each household was fitted with a pair of Solar panels, generating 1Kw electricity. Along with panels, net meters and generation meters were fitted, which transmitted electricity to MSEDCL. Earthing was done, and a lightening rod was fitted.
As the life of a panel is expected to be 25 years, the farmer's light bill is expected to come 0 for next 25 years. As the Sun is there in plenty in India.
This initial project was designed for 50 households. In the last financial year similar project was executed in the same village for 50 more households, through funds received from Emerson again. It was a successful project, which drew a lot of social attention and got a lot of media coverage. So this year we received funds to execute in 250 households. We are grateful to the company for funding us generously for this mega project. Here, it will be in place to mention that, when you fund a project undertaken by Rotary, all the amount company donates, is fully spent on actual project, and no overhead expenses are charged to the project. All visits to sites, analysis, expertise used to find and negotiate with vendors, time to time inspections and follow up are totally free from Rotary members, and never added in project expenditure.
As an incentive, Govt. of India gives subsidy to households, who install a Rooftop Solar system, under the P M Suryaghar Yojana. As the system is totally free in the hands of beneficiaries, we are collecting a part of this subsidy from them, in the form of Donations. This amount will again be used to add more houses under this project. We are happy to declare the deviations resulting from our measures :
For all 42 schools, installation work is almost complete. For households, the work is being allotted to vendors in stages. First 50 are complete. Work for next
60 houses is in process. Registration work for next batch has started. We will try to complete as many houses possible, before Dec. 2025.
Total KW installation - @ 322 KW
Carbon Credits (emission saved) = 59892 Tons / year People impact = 250 families and
42 schools with an average of 150 students each
Advantages of executing projects with Rotary
Rotary is a global organization.
Rotary has members from all classes of profession and expertise, where members are willing to contribute their expertise, skills and even money at times to create a social impact.
There are NO administrative charges, and all efforts are voluntary contributions by Rotary.
Rotary club members will closely monitor proper end use of installed systems. Rotary will coordinate with vendors to gather and submit information on the power generated by the systems.
Rotary will help the beneficiaries by coordinating with vendor personnel for maintenance and/or minor repairs under warranties, and general information about upkeeping the systems.
Rotary added a lot of funds to the project and took it to a higher scale than expected, and committed as per the MOU
The project is under execution and will continue in FY25-26. Clubs will provide the final list of beneficiaries and audited utilization report at the end of FY25-26.
We Rotarians are committed to execute projects with significant impact on society.
Rtn.Dr.Meena Borate
RC Pune Yuva