- Out of 459 international teams and five rounds of scrutiny, Chetan’s Energy Swaraj model bagged the final award of 100,000 dollars and two Guinness World Records
- Chetan Solanki undertook a solar yatra to 30 countries to the mission of providing training to 1 million students to make their own solar lamp
- His next endeavor is an 11-years stay and travel in a solar bus across the country to spread solar energy awareness.
When was the last time you came across a person who has turned his life around principles beyond the boundaries of materialistic well-being and with a passion and potential to run a global movement? It is not only rare but fortunate to know a man, famously known as the solar man of India or the Solar Gandhi, Chetan Singh Solanki. The bitter realities of the unfolding future are no more a mystery, it has been years where institutes and research centers have been indicating towards a survival battle, with nature. But do we really need to fight nature, or save it?
Mr. Solanki has all the answers to these, in conversation with the Machine Maker, he elaborated his journey, of becoming the solar man, with a vision of re-establishing Gandhian philosophy. The former IIT professor has dedicated his life to try his very best to leave no stone unturned in bringing a large-scale change, and the following journey will reflect the selfless path he has chosen.
Solar Energy: A Path Chosen to Build the New India
Chetan belongs to a very small village, where to date there is no bus connectivity, a primary school with one classroom in his days, and two over the years. He saw his village struggle every day, and that is when he decided to do something for his people. While still a student at IIT, he came in contact with Anna Hazare and other social influencers and kept on broadening his reach. With proper guidance, he took the path of solar energy to become his medium to extend help.
Learn how to determine the size of #variouscomponents used in #solarsystem & how to match the power & energy requirements #appliances from @Dr.Chetan Singh Solanki 14th episode of #Learn to #Design #Solar #Systems for #Homes.https://t.co/7qsivvf1Ch@Prafullit@AjayPrakashShri
— Solar Energy Society of India (@SolarEnergyInd) July 29, 2020
With a high paying job, he chose to go to Europe to do his Ph.D. Although he was always persistent in coming back to his country, he was so determined that he kept count down for almost 1230 days, till the day he returned. Soon he became a professor at IIT Mumbai, but still, he was not satisfied, and the contribution was not big enough for him, as he wanted to establish something that has results and not vain researches. He took his first big step in 2010 by starting a school near his village with a 14-acre campus and 1000 plus students, operating completely on solar energy supply. He observed how kerosene lamps were being used in villages with a shortage of or no electricity and wondered why not replace each kerosene lamp with a solar one.
He took his first leave in 2012, and stayed in a village for 3 months, and concluded that the problems were affordability, availability, and repairability. And the solution to it all was to make it locally, as it reduces the overhead costs and in turn, lowers the cost with lower acquisition rates, plus if people know the technology, repairing will not be a difficult task. The entire model clicked very well and within 4 months they were able to provide 20,000 solar lamps at 50% cost and 50% subsidy from students. It took the opportunity and asked privileged children to donate lamps to the unfortunate ones, and the entire concept was successful.
Chetan did not stop here, he wanted to scale up to make it a project which would not be termed as a pilot project but something big and sufficient, hence, he took his plan to IIT. “The goal was every child should have right to light,” expressed Chetan. What started as a word of mouth was starting to transform into a movement, when he set up a target of providing solar lamps to 1 million students in 1 year.
He introduced a 1/3 funding model, where he would take 1/3 from the society and1/3 from the child benefit, and soon with this model, NGOs and organizations like Tata Foundation, Idea, etc pitched in. This created thousands of jobs and immense confidence. The impact grew so large that people started saying to him that due to these lamps the deaths due to snake bites and other casualties started to decrease, and light became a life savior.
He next invited Piyush Goyal to help expand the mission; he not only was impressed with the demonstration but agreed to help. They finalized on a 7 million lamp project and achieved reach to eight and a half million families. But lamps alone cannot be enough. He wanted to create livelihood missions. The major people making solar lamps locally were women, and Chetan witnessed their amazing stories of confidence, where they were no more inferior to their husbands. This motivated him to keep going, so he came up with around 1000 solar marts owned and operated by women.
In 2018 IPCC reports revealed harsh truths of global warming due to careless energy consumption. Startled by this, Chetan went on a solar yatra (trip) to 30 countries, with a mission of providing training to 1 million students to make their own solar lamp.
Thanks to all who have taken part in #IssWinterFridgeBandKar Over 100 houses have stopped using fridge, I am sending a letter to @PMOIndia with list & photos of people who joined campaign. I have requested @narendramodi also to stop using his refrigerator 🙂 #SDGs #EnergySwaraj pic.twitter.com/6J2yF9LeNp
— Chetan S Solanki (@DrChetanSolanki) January 29, 2020
Solar Yatra: Beginning of the Gandhi Movement of Solar
The yatra gave him the title of Solar Man, and he knew a bigger journey has started. He stated his beliefs on the Gandhian philosophy, ‘There is enough in nature only for the need and not for the greed.’ It means that in an ecosystem of finite resources, one can only have finite consumption. But mankind has been blatantly violating this concept, believe that you can consume as much as you can have. The need is not mass production, but the production by the masses. Energy is behind everything, and the dependency for attaining that is on imports, which makes the system very fragile. Hence the need is urgent and should be acted on soon.
They were initially started with solar lamps, and now it is generalized to solar energy solution. Before creating workplaces, there is a need for learning space, and for that Chetan provided many books on detailed training, and now extended on online platforms. 60,000 people have been a part of the online free course till now, the course teaches them to make their own solar home system, irrespective of their background. The other thing is creating a market place for new entrepreneurs by creating awareness and training programs. The implementation is a combination of local and global as for the technology and scaling advantages global and local for better productivity.
'Swaraj’ is a term linked with self-reliance and self-sustainability. When we become self-reliant in generating and consuming energy locally with local resources and local people, we would have achieved energy swaraj.
He explains that 90% of the world population can generate and fulfill their own energy needs. India’s 50% of export revenue is used in importing energy, and at large the sovereignty is at loss. Removing this dependency will rather create jobs, livelihoods, skill development, women empowerment, energy independence, and country security.
Energy Swaraj Movement: Sustainability to Survivability
The mission for energy swaraj is not limited to sustainability but is about survivability. The intensity and frequency of calamities are increasing, causing urgency for the shift. “Once upon a time there were dinosaurs; do we want once upon a time there were humans?” Chetan wondered. The survival of the next generation is a bigger concern over economic prosperity. Their foundation is another excellent unit, performing various campaigns and trying to achieve targets with solar and other cleaner energy adaption.
#coronavirus will go, but #ClimateChange will not.
It is an emergency
1-Plant trees
2-Save energy
3-Use #solarenergy https://t.co/ZvZjx7uSU7#energyswaraj https://t.co/Beq6ffyPV9— Chetan S Solanki (@DrChetanSolanki) June 30, 2020
They were a part of a reputed global competition, under the category, empowering a billion lives. The model Chetan presented was of Energy Swaraj, – by local for local. Out of 459 international teams and five rounds of scrutiny, they bagged the final award of 100,000 dollars and the other two Guinness World Records. Their foundation does not work towards its own success rather the job is to create a public movement, which policies and projects alone cannot do. He thinks that however the government extended the idea of self-sufficiency, it will not be enough for the movement, as it will be accompanied by slow implementation and limited resources. There might be some incremental change, but the level needed is much higher. Hence, energy swaraj is public movement, it needs the public to come together and think long-term.
We not only speak philosophy, but we also give solutions. They want to bring a better suggestion to consume and produce energy, so he makes sure the proper technology and resources are provided.
His mission is not vague but based on realistic yet bigger dreams. For the extension of the swaraj movement, they are coming up with Solar Ashrams, in educational institutions, which will act as an incubation center. And on the grass-root level, they will have solar clubs for schools, sponsoring activities, and various solar equipment formation training. These centers are decentralized to increase local reach. They will create a network with potential manufacturers who have the needed technology. And with that connect the entrepreneurs with these sources, to acquire quality and low-cost products. And result in creating a supply chain. Training becomes an essential element followed by awareness creation and this is what Chetan calls his 5-dimension plan to extend the Energy swaraj movement.
Leading from the Front: The Campaigns
Over the years Chetan has led various campaigns, with strong and ambitious messages, and the thirst to achieve more for the society keeps him going. All these efforts are bigger than the success they achieve. It is about the message it delivers, to one or millions. He started a mission, ‘Is winter fridge band kar’ (Switch of the fridge this winter)’ and urged people to not use the fridge at least in winter, and based on his individual practice he finds the option very practical.
Another campaign was, ‘March to Sun’ which was a symbolic campaign. Given the estimated distance between earth and sun is 150 million km, every individual was supposed to walk at least 1 km in symbol to reach the sun together to ask for solar energy. It was an attempt towards developing an emotion to build a better future. They have for long been asking to surrender the electrical connections, and they will provide better solutions, as smaller efforts will not bring bigger changes. One of the most inspiring steps by Mr. Solanki was when he left his job as an IIT professor to contribute more to his movement.
Having taken unpaid leave from IIT Bombay, I will be undertaking Energy Swaraj Yatra for 11 years on a solar-powered bus. I will meet & encourage people to adopt 100% solar energy. While on the yatra, I will be living in the bus. https://t.co/34rvRA1cR0#EnergySwaraj #Yatra
— Chetan S Solanki (@DrChetanSolanki) July 27, 2020
He is about to take on an endeavor only a dedicated soul can. He plans to develop a solar operated bus with basic facilities, and to live in that bus for 11 years and travel to as many small or big areas in India, interact with people, train them and urge them to surrender conventional electricity. He believes talking and interacting with people is more important than the technology itself. “Commitment to be with the people – that is how I am going to run this movement,” expressed Chetan.
Wake-up & Embrace Energy Swaraj
Chetan had a heartfelt message for all along with gratitude for immense support people have offered him throughout his journey. “My sincere request is just to wake up, give it a thought, and adapt energy swaraj for your own family. Do not create a scary future because of our tasks, make your antennas receive the signal, we need to wake up to reality. And for our younger generation, they will only be able to take care of themselves if we leave them the option to take care of themselves,” he concludes.
To support his movement, you can reach out to him by visiting https://energyswaraj.org/
