Surya Bijlee

The Human Problem - Life after Sunset

For the millions of villagers, life comes to a grinding halt at sunset — with no electricity, there is no light, so no ability to work or study or play. Having spent the major part of the day in the fields, the villagers can do little in the darkness. There is no light for children to study or for any family entertainment.

Fossil Fuels for Lighting
India has over 140 Milllion Rural Homes. Out of this some 87 Million still burn kerosene for lighting. Each family consumes between 100-150 liters of kerosene per annum.

Each liter of kerosene generates 2.6 kgs of Carbon Dioxide. Annually, this is over 22 million tons of pollution.

Carbon Dioxide is a major greenhouse gas and contributes to global warming.

Solar Energy for Lighting
Combining the sun’s energy with modern technology has now provided mankind with a better way. We try to increase the villager’s useful hours after sunset by providing them lights powered by solar energy. This digital lighting is non-polluting and eliminates the carbon dioxide being emitted from rural homes.

Digital Low Energy Lighting
Technology has provided us a key part of the solution in the form of high efficiency low energy Light Emittng Diodes (LED) and Thin Film Solar solutions which can power these lighting systems even in cloudy weather situations.

This TV clip contains a segment showing houses in a village where LED lamps are installed, and includes an interview with the founder of Grameen Surya Bijlee Foundation, Jasjeet Singh Chaddah.

Download a 7 minute clip (in Hindi, file size 3Mbytes).

Solar Energy powered Digital LED lighting systems are clear winners in terms of luminosity, life span, power required, and costs, when compared to other lighting products.

Savings in electricity using LED lamps:

[Currency rate: US$1 = Rs 42, May 2007]

Benefits of LED lamps:

• Long-lasting - LED bulbs last 10 times as long as compact fluorescents, and 50-100 times longer than typical incandescents in normal everyday use situations.
• Durable - Since LEDs do not have a filament, they are not damaged under circumstances when a regular incandescent bulb or CFL would be broken. Because they are solid, LED bulbs hold up well to jarring and bumping. With CFLs, there is the added problem of mercury toxins spreading on breakage.
• Cool - these bulbs do not cause heat build-up. LEDs produce 3.4 btus/hour, compared to 85 btus/hour for incandescent bulbs.
• Energy-saving - LEDs use a fraction of the wattage of incandescent bulbs. These bulbs last for years, therefore energy is saved in maintenance and replacement costs. This also makes LEDs the best choice for use with alternative energy sources

Please click on the Products Page to read about specific ratings regarding all the products.

With the rapid changes in Technology in the areas of Solar PhotoVoltaic Panels and White LED’s the scope of using these systems improves dramatically whilst ensuring that the cost of the systems will drop by atleast 25% within the next 12-24 months

The Technology trends of changes are :
1) Solar Photo Voltaic Panels : With the emergence of Thin Film Technolgies whether Amorphous Silicon Panels or CdTe Panels or new materials the efficiency of the Panels has improved . There is seen an immense potential for the cost of the Panels to fall to approx. USD 1 per Wp as against the current prevailing price of approx. USD 3 per Wp
2) White LED’s : With technology advancements the Luminosity Output of the LED’s has improved from about 25 Lumens/Watt of Input power consumption in 2005 to 50 Lumens/Watt of Power by June 2006 and is expected to further rise to 100 Lumens/Watt by end 2007/ early 2008
3) Batteries : With the development of newer technologies we hope to be able to use either Lithium Ion Batteries OR Nickel Metal Hydride Batteries instead of the present Lead Acid batteries . The Life cycle of the Lead Batteries is just about 600 cycles @ 30-35% Depth of discharge as against the Life of a NiMH Battery of about 2000 cycles @ 40-50% Depth of Discharge . The issue of Cost remains as now the Lead Acid Batteries are about 30% of the cost of equivalent NiMH Batteries . We forsee that the prices of NiMh Batteries will fall within 12 months

These developments have created multiple advantages in focusing on Solar Energy and Digital LED Lighting as an alternate source of Energy and Lighting

Following the technology improvement trend, we forsee new developments to pick up rapidly in the next 12-24 months, leading to much better efficiency and reduction in costs for the product. This should help increase the consumer base and reach of the product

LED Lamps ( Input : Mains AC Supply from the Grid) : White LED Lamps with an Input from the Mains AC supply can help in Load Demand management of the State Electricity Boards . This is because they consume about 1/8th the Electric Power consumed by Incandescent Lamps . This reduction in Power requirements can help meet the electricty demands of a larger number of Homes as the saved power sourced from the existing generation and transmission facilities can be supplied to other Homes and the Electricity Boards can avoid having to resort to load shedding across the country.