Evolution of a college project to a start up

Project Proposal free Spirits

2014

free Spirits 131, Site-2, Vikas Puri, New Delhi - 18

1/1/2014

We are a group of budding engineers who have graduated from Delhi College of Engineering. We aim to lighten each and every rustic home with light. We have a vision to make the rural India go SOLAR, with the ever increasing demand in power by the cities and the villages being neglected.

We aim to provide solar charging stations, water pumping plants and

food preservation and cooling systems in villages which are unable to

access the conventional source of electricity and possess no such

facilities. Also, small products like solar home lighting systems, portable

mobile phone chargers and solar street lights are part of this initiative.

‘free Spirits’ is an initiative to a greener world. Powering homes is not the

only motive, but empowering people with skills and knowledge to

operate integrates our vision. This will ensure the use of products

efficiently and will ensure employment opportunities. The products and

the journey so far corroborate the aim to innovate products that will save

money and preserve the conventional sources of energy.

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1. Introduction

The use of direct solar energy in India has evolved for more than three thousand years.

Most prominent of these are the drying of foods for preservation and assured availability

during non-crop periods of the year, the drying of garments/clothes, and therapeutic

protocols for human and animal health. This direct use of solar energy continues while

modern technologies have made the rural life dramatically different. The main sources of

energy for rural communities of India are electricity, gas, and petroleum. With increasing

population, henceforth, increasing need of energy, the present sources are unable to

satisfy this rise in demand. In addition to this, burning of wood, charcoal, and other

materials have negative environmental consequences. For these reasons a paradigm shift

is needed and that calls for extensive use of non conventional sources of energy (solar,

wind, biomass etc). India is a developing country, and its economy is largely dependent

on agriculture. But, in this era of modernization rural India has been completely

neglected. Therefore, targeting the agriculture sector of India for the innovative use of

solar power will directly contribute to the economy and development of the nation. The

intelligent and innovative uses of solar energy will render cost effective, reliable, and

environmentally friendly solutions for rural India.

2. The Technological Challenges

The main challenge we see for the solar power utilization in rural India is to maintain the values and culture of the farm communities while providing solar based technology to exponentially enhance the quality of life of the inhabitants. This requires a deliberate understanding of the needs of rural inhabitants and innovative approach for implementing and integrating solar power in their life style. Cost is a major concern for rural India. Rural inhabitants tend to be very cost conscientious and most often do not have the monetary resources needed for high-tech solutions. They tend to do mental trade-offs on a daily basis to economize and use their resources most effectively. Borrowing is not a welcome practice in these communities. In view of this, any solar technological solutions have to be cost-effective.

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The challenge is to develop devices and appliances for rural applications that can stand rough use by persons not technologically savvy. For this reason, technologies have to be rugged, reliable, and easy to use and repair. The ease of maintenance is essential for successful technology intervention. Furthermore, costs associated with repair and maintenance should be minimal. Weather changes have dramatic effect on the amount of solar energy that can be harvested. For this reason, technological approaches should work in cloudy, rainy, and winter weather because the farm work continues in all seasons.

3. Journey So Far

Solar Power Initiative for Rural India Team (SPIRIT) Pilot Project

in Bhajju (Shamli district), and Kamheda Tughlakpur

(Muzzafarnagar district) Villages, Uttar Pradesh, India

A team of students from Delhi Technological University (DTU) and ‘free Spirits’ worked

together under the guidance of DTU Honorary Professor, Dr. Kumar Krishen; who is

dedicated to the welfare of the people living in rural areas, to provide small solar

powered setups for ten families free of cost. The hardware requirements for this project

worth Rs. 30,000 are funded by Prof. Krishen through the Krishen Foundation

(http://www.krishenfoundation.org/). The installation work was completed on August

11, 2013. After a few days, a feedback was taken by the families and the necessary

modifications needed in the systems were done. The up gradation cost of the systems

was Rs. 15,000 and was funded by free Spirits. The purpose of providing the free setups

to the families was to get feedback from them and check their feasibility in the villages.

http://www.krishenfoundation.org/

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Project Rashmi

A small village in Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh electricity is like a distant dream for the

inhabitants. We inquired about the problems faced by the villagers on a daily basis. On

interviewing some of them, one of the problems was considered and then concluded

that they pay Rs. 5 every alternate day to charge their mobile phones. At times they

wait for hours for their turn. The monthly cost of charging their mobile phones

approximates around Rs. 100 – 120. To address this problem, we came up with Project

RASHMI, which aims to provide solar mobile phone chargers to the villagers. The

advantage being the phone is charged during the day without paying any rent to the

owner of the station and also the long queues would be rejected. Every villager would

have their personal charging station with them. The monthly expenditure would drop to

Rs. 19 for mobile phone charging.

Electrification of a charitable school, Dodaballapura, Bangalore

A small chartable school working hard to aware the rural families about the importance

of education has more than 200 students from around 60 villages now. We met with the

principle to discuss about the development of this area and he has agreed to help us in

that. We have installed a small solar powered light setup in that school that can be used

to power 3 - 4 LED lights during the night time. Also, we’ve distributed some solar

powered mobile phone chargers in the villages for free. This will give them a practical

experience over these devices. We are talking to various organizations for further

development work.

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Working with TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) to help

provide electricity in villages in Maharashtra

We have talked to the TISS (TATA Institute of Social Sciences, Tuljapur, Maharashtra)

about the initiative and also gave them a brief description about the different products

that we have developed. They have asked us to participate in their annual fest, where in

all the authorities already working on rural development will be participating and also all

the villagers will be attending the fest. The idea is to showcase the application (giving a

demo) to the villagers in the fest. After this demo, we will be surveying one of the village

to get information about the needs of the villagers and the kind of application required

for that village.

Initiating a project ‘Solar Power Well and Cooler’ in Delhi

Technological University, Delhi

We’ve proposed to work on two major applications of solar energy that can be

implemented in rural areas of India. Seeing current scenario of electricity in rural areas

this would be solve major problems of rural population. As using a natural resource is

always a better way than using than relying on Government for electricity which is quite

fluctuating. The solar power well is similar to a solar energy plant except that is will be

used to charge the batteries that farmers use in their homes. So this application works on

small scale but caters the need of major percentage of population. The resource Sun is

easily available so this saves the larger percentage of farmers income.

The solar power cooler is a concept where the farmers can use small cabins to store their

crops, fruits and vegetable at appropriate conditions. This will help reduce the wastage of

eatables and a better quality of crops for longer time.

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4. Our proposal

After analyzing the technological challenges described in the previous sections, we have come

up with following solutions that can be implemented in rural areas. All the mentioned solutions

are capable to bring a positive change in the life of people who are unable to make use of

electricity due to its unavailability.

(a) Solar Powered Rural Homes / Hut

The technologies to be used in home/hut include lights, fans, phones etc. Solar powered rural

homes or huts would make the inhabitants independent of the power provided by the state.

Solar powered huts aim at providing the basic lighting to people who have been devoid of this

invention for years.

The solar panel via controller charges the battery. During the day the appliances run directly on

solar power, simultaneously the battery captures the solar energy to be utilized later.

Depending upon the utility of various houses and the affordability of the people, we have six

different models that can be provided. Also all the appliances to be used with the solar

powered system are provided in the models:

Model 1 (battery backup of 5-7 hours)

Solar Panel (30 watts)

Battery (12 V, 20 Ah)

1 LED light (9 watts)

1 DC table fan (12 watts)

Solar charge controller

Model 2 (backup of 5-7 hours)


Battery (12 V, 40 Ah) (3 yr warranty)

2 LED lights (9 watts)


1 DC mobile charging device

1 chargeable torch (3 watts, backup > 15 hours)




Battery (12 V, 60 Ah)






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Solar lantern (4 watts, backup > 4 hours)













1 portable DC mobile charging device



1 DC table lamp (8 watts, backup > 3 hours)


Model 6 (backup of (4-5 hours) This is the basic model which can be provided to a family. It can be used to light up one LED light of 9 watts (or 2 LED lights of (4 watts) for four to five hours


Battery (12V, 7 Ah)

LED light (9 watts)


As it is a part of our initiative, we do not charge anything for installation of these setups and the

mounting structure of solar panels. Also, a free detailed workshop would be taken so as to

make the users aware of functioning of the system.

(b) Solar lighted Streets / Corners / Farm ways

Solar lights are used all over the globe. The system use solar energy during the daytime to

charge the battery, then with the help of a controlling device, these lights work from dusk to

dawn automatically. India being a tropical nation can utilize this free energy in lighting the

streets in the villages. Having street lights in rural areas is helpful in a number of ways:

Making nightlife better in case of transportation, medical emergencies etc.

Increase in security of areas which are affected by a number of ill objects.

Mounting and pole structures would be installed depending upon the availability of already

available infrastructure in the respective area.

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(c) Solar Mobile Charging device

Solar energy can be easily used to charge a mobile phone battery during daytime. A portable,

rugged and efficient system allows proper charging and stands rough use by the people not

technologically savvy. This device not only charges mobile phone batteries, but is also used to

charge batteries of other small appliances like torch, lantern etc and can be used to run small

DC fans. This device comes with a solar panel and DC charger for efficient and fast charging.

The payback period of all the systems described above is 3 – 7 years. These systems will not

only be able to provide facilities to the people living in rural areas but also helps in reduction in

carbon footprint by a very large amount. The replacement of diesel/kerosene, wood and coal

by solar energy for production of electricity will have a positive impact on the environment.

5. Other Important Plans

The applications of solar power should include direct utilization of light, direct utilization of

heat, and transfer of solar energy into electric power. We suggest the following possible needs

based on the observations and experience in rural communities of India

(a) Solar Charging Stations

(b) Solar Powered Centralized Food Preservation Facility

(c) Solar Powered Irrigation System

(d) Solar Powered Vehicles

(e) Solar Powered Waste Management

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6. The Road Ahead

Extension of Solar Power Initiative for Rural India Team (SPIRIT)

Pilot Project in Bhajju (Shamli district), and Kamheda

Tughlakpur (Muzzafarnagar district) Villages, Uttar Pradesh,

India

With successful completion of Pilot project in two villages of Uttar Pradesh, we got the

desired feedbacks from the villagers about the use of solar powered systems. Also, the

ten families are happy to see their homes lightened. After modifying all the systems as

per the feedback, we are ready to launch ‘Extension of Pilot Project’ in September 2013.

This time we plan to upgrade the ten systems installed and also provide six more solar

powered setups to poor families free of cost. The aim to upgrade the previous systems

and providing six more setups free of cost is again to get a feedback from the people

about its feasibility and any more modification if needed.

Rural Electrification of a village in Rajasthan in collaboration

with Arya Tara Mahila Trust, Pune

Our initiative to lighten up the lives of the people living in rural areas has has found a match

with the members of Arya Tara Mahila Trust, Pune. Two of our representatives will be surveying

one of the villages in Rajasthan with them to know about the requirements of the people and all

the best suitable and possible applications of solar energy for that area. As of now we have

already planned for around 20 street lights to be installed in the village.

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Suruchi

[email protected]

Nitin

+91-9958317100 [email protected]

Anuj

[email protected]

free Spirits

131, Site – 2, Vikas Puri New Delhi – 110018

India

f r e e d o m t o i n n o v a t e

Documents

Evolution of a college project to a start up