The energy challenge

The question that can be asked is whether Auroville is on the right path in making a contribution to a sustainable energy future for all. Let us list some of the initiatives that Auroville has taken in this regard:

Auroville has a mix of renewable energy sources which includes on-site solar energy systems (stand-alone and grid-connected) and off-site wind turbines. The combined annual energy production of these systems is about 30% more than the electricity Auroville consumes. This makes Auroville net-positive as far as sustainable electrical energy is concerned.

The distributed solar energy systems of Auroville which are connected to Auroville’s internal distribution network allow for multi-directional energy flow between buildings and facilities. The first smart mini grid of Auroville which is in the final stages of completion includes distributed solar energy, distributed energy storage and smart metering which enables remote demand side management (e.g. peak shaving and peak shifting). 

Other energy-related initiatives include smart street lighting (with solar energy), precision irrigation, e-mobility and various energy conservation and efficiency measures.  Auroville is, and has been, working with the Tamil Nadu Government through TEDA (Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency) and TANGEDCO (Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation) on numerous sustainable energy initiatives including the pioneering of grid-connected rooftop solar PV, solar energy policies, solar villages, solar energy for agriculture programmes etc. Auroville has also been active in several other States in this regard and is uniquely placed to act as an initiator, developer and demonstrator of innovative energy solutions.

Auroville needs to do more in the field of energy conservation and efficiency and accelerate the transition to green mobility and low energy precision irrigation, to just name a few. Also the completion of the backbone of the Auroville internal distribution network is a priority. This will allow an increase in distributed renewable energy capacity and distributed energy storage systems. Distributed and connected. This will give a high level of resilience and enables the sharing of resources. With adequate on-site renewable energy generation and energy storage capacity and remote (automatic) demand side management, the system can run in autonomous (island) mode for a certain period of time.

The electricity grid transitions from being a one-way highway over which energy flows in one direction from high capacity fossil fuel generators to millions of consumers to a network where the grid acts as a balancing system between a large number of distributed renewable energy generators and storage devices in conjunction with smart demand side management. 

A question is sometimes raised about a scenario wherein the public electricity grid collapses (the generators, the distribution network, or both). With sufficient energy generation capacity and large energy storage capacity one can go beyond interim autonomy and make the local system long term autonomous.  But this can be done only if the area for which you want to create that autonomy has sufficient renewable energy generation potential, which matches the local energy needs and with energy storage capacity that is sufficiently large.  For Auroville this means that the trajectory of distributed renewable energy generation and distributed energy storage is the correct one and if one wants to plan for total long term public grid collapse, the on-site energy storage investments will have to be much larger and the local grid will have to be even more robust. The present Auroville trajectory allows for incremental energy storage capacity enhancement and internal grid strengthening.

Whatever “future-proof” solutions we come up, these should also work for (most) places other than Auroville. Whatever we do needs to be replicable elsewhere. 

Auroville will continue to play a role in demonstrating that the vision of a sustainable energy future for all can become a reality.