Desi Power from biomass

A 50 KW power station, based on gasification of rice husk briquettes is providing the villagers of Baharbari in Bihar with electricity.

The facilities provided by Desi Power include assured irrigation, battery recharging, rice parboiling/milling, flour grinding, biomass briquetting, and equipment fabrication and repair services.  The village is no longer dependent on desel guzzling polluting generators for power. Can this village show the way forward for rural India?

The farmers pay Rs. 35 per hour for pumped water, delivered through a 75-mm pipe; the charge is enhanced to Rs. 49 per hour if the payment is made at the time of the harvest. battery charging is Rs. 6 to 12 per charge, parboiling charges are Rs. 200 per ton and the list continues to grow as the users continue to demand assured energy services.

"Three years ago, practically no one had a television set in this isolated community tucked between Nepal and Bangladesh. It is an area so remote and roadless that the only access is on foot or by bullock cart, after monsoon rains turn dirt paths into bogs that become impassable even for farm tractors."writes New York Times.

The biomass generator in Baharbari is owned by a collective of village residents.

( Photo courtesy Scott Eells, New York Times)