Responsible Energy Management workshop

In the midst of the heavy rains that brought life to a standstill in most areas of Tamil Nadu, an energetic group of people came to Auroville from all over India. They were to participate in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Auroville Consulting’s Programme for Responsible Energy Management (PREM) in association with the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA). The purpose of the workshop, which is in its third year now, was to train officers from State nodal agencies and regional rural banks in India to identify lucrative ‘Clean Energy’ projects that promote off-grid renewables, with a special focus on rooftop solar panels.

Apart from training in areas like energy conservation and efficiency interventions, energy audits, and solar photovoltaic systems, there were also site visits to clean energy installations in Auroville. Apart from the team at Auroville Consulting, Debabrata from Sunlit Future, Jorge of Min Vayu, Akash from Cynergy and Carsten of Auroville Energy Products are also involved as facilitators for the participants.

So why is there a need for such a programme? Nitin, from Auroville Consulting, explains that despite the deteriorating state of our environment and energy needs, most of the renewable energy projects face a big time lag between inception and implementation in India. This is partly due to the hierarchical approval mechanism in the energy departments, but mostly due to a lack of understanding among the officers at the grassroots levels concerning what is a functional or sustainable project. With this in mind, the workshop has been designed to cater to a layman’s understanding of the technicalities of clean energy products and processes.