SUNNY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN

Aar-em lights up Rural INDIA and bridges the gap between power demand
and supply through Solar Energy

Aar-em Electronics Pvt. Ltd. a Pune based firm known for its Champion brand of Uninterruptible Power Supplies now has entered the field of providing Uninterruptible light source for villages after sunset by providing them lights and other utilities powered by solar energy.

After a tiring day at office, when the better part of urban population retires to the comfort in their brightly lit living rooms and waits for a sumptious dinner being cooked in the kitchen, a larger part of rural India – is immersed in darkness As dusk descends, it is time for the rural woman to fix a kerosene lamp and poke some firewood into a fuming chulha to cook dinner. While the lamp barely lights up the place, both the lamp and the chulha fill up the house with hazardous smoke, putting at risk the health of the woman and also her children whom she tries to attend to while cooking.

India has over 140 Milllion Rural Homes. Out of this some 87 Million still burn kerosene for lighting, which is dirty and dangerous. Each family at an average consumes between 10-15 liters of kerosene per month which in turn generates 2.6 kgs of Carbon Dioxide. This adds to pollution of the environment and accelerates global warming.

Combining the sun’s energy with modern technology has now provided mankind with a solution that can electrify his home and ends in a better lifestyle. Aar-em tries all possible ways to increase the villager’s useful hours after sunset by providing them lights powered by solar energy.

Aar-em is offering a system which typically contains a roof-installed solar PV module, storage battery, charge controller, interior wiring, and switches and fixtures with the capacity to power two- low-wattage high power LED modules.

The largest barrier to the switch to solar in developing countries has been the lack of financing for clean energy in poor communities. Often, the world’s poorest people can afford only highly polluting options such as kerosene.

Above all Aar-em can also provide a Television to this rural community who are currently being deprived and cut of from the mainstream life and activities. They do not get access to weather, agriculture, livelihood, projects, education, health and hygiene information that is now being made available through several TV channels. Solar power is used to run the TV & Direct to home (DTH) service is used to receive the television channels. Street lights are can also be provided making a village fully complete and electrified.

Providing safe drinking water to villages without electricity

It is a well-known fact that clean water is absolutely essential for healthy living. Clean drinking water is a basic necessity of life. Supply of clean drinking water in the rural areas has always been one of the highest priorities of the government. Today nearly 50% of villages in INDIA still do not have any source of protected drinking water.

This firm has now devised a novel method to supply Safe & Clean drinking water to villages without electricity. The entire system will run on Solar Energy and has been designed and developed by its in-house R&D.

The system consists of a Pump which draws out water from a Well and stores in an over head tank. Later the water is pushed through a membrane based water filter to remove Bacteria and Virus and provide clean and safe drinking water. All this is controlled by a controller designed by Aar-em which controls the pumps, pressure switches and levels of water. The unit houses an Overhead tank, Pump, Pressure Pump, Electronic Controller, Solar modules, Water Filter and Battery. The water filters used by Aar-em are specially developed by an external agency for villages that are depending solely on the rain-water/surface water for supply of potable water to their households.

All water filters require a storage tank to be installed at 30 feet above ground to achieve required pressure. This is a difficult task at remote villages without electricity. Our system was designed keeping in mind that storage tank should be at maximum 8 feet above ground and yet attain required pressure thus easy to install and maintain

Exposure to polluted water can cause diarrhoea, skin irritation, respiratory problems, and other diseases, depending on the pollutant that is in the water body. Water-borne epidemics and health hazards in the aquatic environment are mainly due to improper management of water resources. Proper management of water resources has become the need of the hour as this would ultimately lead to a cleaner and healthier environment.

In order to prevent the spread of water-borne infectious diseases, Aar-em has developed this low cost system which could provide clean drinking water to areas even without electricity. Initially they would install at least 2-3 such units and then approach the Government, NGO's or investors who wish to take this project forward.