While India has 12 mature decentralised renewable energy (DRE) livelihood technologies, collectively they have the potential to impact 3.7 crore livelihoods This livelihood impact potential translates into a revenue opportunity worth USD 48 billion or Rs 3.78 lakh crore, as per a report by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)-Villgro Innovations Foundation.

The report stated, “The DRE livelihood technologies have the greatest impact opportunity in Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest population in the country. It is followed by West Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.”

The report revealed in Uttar Pradesh, the DRE livelihood technologies have a market potential of Rs 68,113 crore and can impact the livelihood of over 55.87 lakh people in the populous state. In states like Maharashtra and Gujarat, DRE technology has the potential to impact around 28 lakh livelihoods.

Abhishek Jain, Fellow & Director, Powering Livelihoods, told CNBC-TV18, “The highest impact and market opportunity in Uttar Pradesh is mainly because of its highest population in the country, especially rural population.”

The report further stated there are 12 mature decentralised renewable energy (DRE) livelihood technologies which include higher capacity pumps, silk-reeling machines, dryers, charkha, micro pumps, small horticulture processors, small refrigerator/deep freezers, cold storage, vertical fodder grow unit, grain-milling machine, loom and bulk milk chiller.

“Solar-powered pumps — higher capacity and micro-pumps — have the maximum deployment potential, followed by solar-powered vertical fodder growing units and solar dryers. Collectively, these four technologies alone can impact around 27 million livelihoods,” it stated.

Interestingly, solar pumps are the most mature among these technologies due to the government subsidy programmes supporting them since 2015. Vertical fodder growth unit has a market potential of $1.8 billion.

As per the report, DRE livelihood technologies can cost somewhere between Rs 25,000-Rs 14 lakh. It was also found that there is a broad positive association between the product’s unit cost and the discounted payback period.

Costlier DRE livelihood technologies have longer payback periods. However, there are notable exceptions, such as solar-powered looms and solar-powered small horticulture processors.

DRE variants save costs only marginally over a 10-year period as compared to their grid alternative. However, over a 15-year investment horizon, the DRE variants of such technologies become much more attractive than their grid alternatives. “So, if an end user is considering a business horizon of 10+ years, the DRE livelihood technologies could be economically more attractive, even if the grid is reliable.”

Also read: New scheme for distributed renewable energy livelihood applications to be out soon: RK Singh

Abhishek Jain said, “This equipment can easily survive 15 years or even more. Of course, the depreciation would happen and our economic analysis already accounts for the component replacements etc. over the equipment lifetime.”

The analysis highlighted the need for financiers for such technologies to change from Microfinance institutions (MFIs) and Small Finance Banks (SFBs) to larger Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and banks.

(Edited by : Pradeep John)