SwitchON Foundation in collaboration with Jharkhand State Renewable Energy Department organize an interactive session on Solar Water Pumps on National Energy Conservation Day

Ranchi  : Marking the occasion of National Energy Conservation Day, SwitchON Foundation in collaboration with state renewable agency ‘Jharkhand State Renewable Energy Department (JREDA)’ had organized an interactive session on solar water pumps, participated by the farming community.

During the event, senior officials from JREDA were present at the event; including project director, executive engineer, junior engineer. The officials explained the benefits of solar pumps and how the farmers could better utilize the solar pumps for higher output and higher energy conservation.  The event was also attended by a large number of solar pump installation companies in the state; including, Tata Power, Shakti Pumps, Vaishnav Engineering, and V-tech.

National energy conservation day in India is celebrated to inform people about the importance of energy as well as saving or conserving more energy by using less energy. The day is a reminder of India’s commitment to clean energy and combating climate change.

India has taken strong strides on its clean energy transition. While India’s energy needs are expected to grow, energy efficiency can help meet them cost-effectively while leaving a better environment for the next generation. Experts believe that – focusing on energy efficiency action could be the unambiguous first and best response to simultaneously meet targets of affordability, supply security and climate goals.

Speaking during the occasion, Project Director, JREDA, Shri. Bijay kr. Sinha, said, “Solar pumps play an important role in providing livelihood support for our farmers, as it provides reliable and affordable irrigation to lakhs of farmers in Jharkhand in a sustainable environment friendly manner, thus ensuring economic and environmental gains for the state.”

Farmers mostly from the major districts of the Santhal Pargana region took part in the event; including – Deoghar, Dumka, Ramgarh, Sahebganj, Pakur. Overall, a large part of the attending farmers were champion women farmers.

Shri. Mukesh Prashad, Executive Engineer, JREDA attending the event said, “Switching to Solar Pump makes more economic sense today than ever before and JREDA is committed to the installation. There is an urgent need to shift the energy loads of the agricultural activities to solar energy, JREDA has been actively promoting this.”

Most of these farmers had already installed solar pumps at their farms and shared their wonderful experiences during the event. Many of the farmers who were also awaiting free installation orders from the JREDA also were rewarded the orders marking the occasion of the day.

The event also was attended by a large network of volunteers from the SwitchON youth EEWA Network including Yuva Jagriti Kala Kendra (Borako), PERNA (Garwah) BMVSS (Deoghar) STAR (Pakur), Sankalpyatra (Sahibganj) etc along with the farmers.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has unveiled a draft policy framework to encourage the use of decentralized renewable energy (DRE) for livelihood applications. This framework aids in laying the foundation for an enabling ecosystem to promote, implement, and grow DRE-based livelihood applications in India in keeping with their ambitious COP26 commitment of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030. Keeping this in mind the Jharkhand government had earlier unveiled an ambitious new solar policy aiming at increasing clean energy capacity up to 4,000 megawatts in the next five years.