We speak with Abhishek Jain from the Council for Energy Environment and Water in India. We discuss energy access, productive energy use, solar water pumps, and the electricity sector in India.

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Show notes:

(1:40) Introduction to CEEW, the Council on Energy Environment and Water - a not-for-profit think tank. Abhishek's focus on energy access, productive livelihoods, and food systems

(6:00) Their work in international topics, outside of India

(7:45) India's energy landscape and the significant progress in recent years: estimated 97% electrification rate in India; improving availability (~21 hours/day) and the ongoing need for reliability

(10:45) Most electrification conducted by the national, government-led efforts; ~0.5% of population received electricity from decentralised energy solutions

(12:45) Powering Livelihoods program, focused on productive energy use and solar powered solutions, in partnership with Villgro; working with existing enterprises to expand their deployment (focused on agribusiness and textiles); collecting data to provide evidence for the viability of the sector

(16:30) The types of solutions they work with: solar water pumps, cold storage and biomass, drying machines, sorting machines, processing machines, expelling machines; spinning machines, solar looms etc. The pipeline of solar powered productive energy use appliances

(21:00) Supporting the enterprises to adapt to a post-COVID environment; engaging with government agencies and financial players

(23:30) The focus on gender within their work: ensuring greater gender inclusivity in their program

(25:00) Existing limited irrigation in agriculture; the diversity in groundwater health across India - some areas are facing water stress, but other areas have the potential to improve their use of water resources

(28:40) CEEW's tool to assess whether water pumps should be used in a specific areas, and what additional technologies should be deployed alongside water pumps

(31:00) Dual electricity distribution network: one for agriculture and water pumps, one for household use

(33:00) Water-as-a-Service solutions and business models