Abstract
One of the greatest challenges in today’s world is to satisfy the energy needs of a growing population, in a sustainable way. In Developing countries, actual electrification of rural areas is hindered by high costs and unreliability of service, which often discourage rural communities to avail energy services even when they are available. This study aimed at better understanding the energy struggle of Indian rural communities, and propose efficient technological solutions to address it. Taking the case of a community located in the Himalaya region, a field based, participatory and bottom-up approach is taken to assess the community needs, expectations, and actual resources. A prototype of solar panel using machine learning-assisted automatic sun tracker system is proposed to provide sustainable and affordable electricity to the community.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/20525. Last accessed 24 Dec 2020
Rockefeller Foundation. https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/report/rural-electrification-india-customer-behaviour-demand/. Last accessed 24 Dec 2020
Mohan V, Garcia VC, Frey ML, Ramesh MV, Devidas AR, Shibu NS, Mohan R, Pokkiyarath M (2017) Assessing village power grid problems for development of quality and stable supplemental sustainable energy. In: 2017 IEEE global humanitarian technology conference (GHTC). IEEE, pp 1–10
Ramesh MV, Mohan R, Menon S (2016) Live-in-Labs: rapid translational research and implementation-based program for rural development in India. In: 2016 IEEE global humanitarian technology conference (GHTC). IEEE, pp 164–171
Government of India. National Census 2011. Last accessed 22 Dec 2020
Ramesh MV, Muir A, Nandanan K, Bhavani RR, Mohan R (2022) HCI curricula for sustainable innovation: the humanitarian focus at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Interactions 29(1):54–57
Varma DS, Nandanan K, Vishakh Raja PC, Soundharajan B, P´erez ML, Sidharth KA, Ramesh MV (2021) Participatory design approach to address water crisis in the village of Karkatta, Jharkhand, India. Technol Forecast Soc Change 172:121002 (2021)
Narayanasamy N (2009) Participatory rural appraisal: principles, methods and application. SAGE Publications India
Lee MJ, Yuan W, Henry BLD (2012) AR UX design: applying AEIOU to hand-held augmented reality browser. In: 2012 IEEE international symposium on mixed and augmented reality—arts, media, and humanities (lSMAR-AMH). IEEE, pp 99–100
Brown T, Wyatt J (2010) Design thinking for social innovation. Dev Outreach 12(1):29–43
Ranger BJ, Mantzavinou A (2018) Design thinking in development engineering education: a case study on creating prosthetic and assistive technologies for the developing world. Dev Eng 3:166–174
Dey PS, Chettiar MS, Devanand P, Arunajaya CK, Sowmya C, Frey LM, Cornet S (2020) Assessment of sustainable agriculture practices in Uttarakhand, India. In: IEEE 8th R10 humanitarian technology conference (R10-HTC). IEEE, pp 1–6
Oberoi A, Mohan H, Basavaraju S, Raparthi S, Bhattacharjee S, Cornet S (2021) Study of an activity tracking device for rural workers through collaborative design. In: IEEE 9th region 10 humanitarian technology conference (R10-HTC). IEEE, pp 1–6
Oberoi A, Bandla S, Mohan H, Basavaraju S, Bhattacharjee S, Raparthi S, Frey LM, Cornet S (2022) ICT-based enhancement of employment schemes: a case study in rural Uttarakhand, India. In: ICT with intelligent applications. Springer, Singapore, pp 643–651
National Institute of Wind Energy. niwe.res.in/. Last accessed 20 Dec 2020
Malik P, Chandel SS (2020) Performance enhancement of multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules using mirror reflectors under Western Himalayan climatic conditions. Renewable Energy 154:966–975
Ba¸sak OD, Sazak BS (2014) Effect of components on a solar panel system efficiency. J Res Eng Technol (IJRET) 3:7–11
Pavlovi´c ZT, Kosti´c LT (2015) Variation of reflected radiation from all reflectors of a flat plate solar collector during a year. Energy 80:75–84
Arshad R, Tariq S, Niaz MU, Jamil M (2014) Improvement in solar panel efficiency using solar concentration by simple mirrors and by cooling. In: 2014 international conference on robotics and emerging allied technologies in engineering (iCREATE). IEEE, pp 292–295
Mousazadeh H, Keyhani A, Javadi A, Mobli H, Abrinia K, Sharifi A (2009) A review of principle and sun-tracking methods for maximizing solar systems output. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 13(8):1800–1818
Alam SMS, Rahman AM (2016) Performance comparison of mirror reflected solar panel with tracking and cooling. In: 2016 4th international conference on the development in the renewable energy technology (ICDRET). IEEE, pp 1–4
Solar trackers: what you need to know, EnergySage. https://news.energysage.com/solar-trackers-everything-need-know. Last accessed 8 Mar 2022
Garg V (2019) Vast potential of rooftop solar in India. Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)
Acknowledgements
This study was conducted as part of the Amrita School for Sustainable Development and the UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation & Development, at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. The authors extend their sincere gratitude to the Amrita Live-in-Labs® Academic program for providing all the support. The authors express their immense gratitude to Sri. Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, who has inspired them in performing selfless service to society.
The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to Mr. Gopalaiengar Sheshadri for his extensive support in enhancing the quality of the paper within the limited time frame.
The authors also thank Subhadraji, the village coordinator, and all the stakeholders of the Udalka community for participating in the study and guiding them throughout the process. Finally, authors thank the government officials of the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, and staff members of the Amrita Self Reliant Villages (Amrita SeRVe) program.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Das, A. et al. (2023). Performance Enhancement of Photo Voltaic System for Rural Electrification in Higher Altitude Region: A Case Study in Uttarakhand, India. In: Fong, S., Dey, N., Joshi, A. (eds) ICT Analysis and Applications. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 517. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5224-1_38
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5224-1_38
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-5223-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-5224-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)