TBI Photo Essay: Mera Gao Power – Providing A Brighter Future, Two Solar Panels At A Time
As a social enterprise committed to providing some of the poorest households in India with solar power, Mera Gao Power is making great inroads. Starting from Sitapur district in Uttar Pradesh, the venture has reached out to more than 3500 customers in just over a year. In this lovely photo essay, Anna Da Costa shows us some of the impact when people living off the grid are finally included in the growth story and shown the possibilities.
Kallu Ram, a Doctor from the village of Bidthauli now uses his lights to keep his medical store open late into the night, so he need not rely on kerosene or diesel to provide power after dark.
In the village of Sewanpurawa, children use the lights to continue their studies after dark. Parents also feel a sense of relief, as there is less danger of the children coming to harm in the darkness.
For any company, be it “social” or otherwise, much of its long-term sustainability rests on its capacity to keep creating value for its customers. This might be through a continued expansion of its customer base, or through diversifying its array of offerings over time. MGP is seeking to do both, starting with expanding its customer base.
“It was always crucial for us that the model was sustainable across multiple levels: economic, environmental and social. Scale is a part of this”, says Nikhil Jaisinghani, one of MGP’s co-founders. “We are constantly keeping an eye on how to make sure that is the case…trying, testing, failing and evolving to suit the needs of our customers as best we can”.
In the future, says Brian Shaad, the other of MGP’s co-founders, they also hope to diversify the services they can offer MGP’s newly created network. “We hope this will include services such as education, awareness raising around sanitation and healthcare, entertainment, and improved access to knowledge and technologies for farming”.
“We believe that the model is slowly proving itself”, Jaisinghani noted, as we reflected on the company’s growth across its first year of operation. “At the moment we aren’t able to keep up with the demand, which I’d like to think is a good sign!”
Indeed, the results to date are encouraging. MGP began its installations in December 2011, when it installed its first microgrid in the village of Sewanpurawa. Since that time, operations have been expanding at an escalating rate. In March the company had reached 20 villages, by September, 56, and at the last count, 137: so about 3500 customers so far. This includes a recent move into a second district block within Sitapur, close to their starting point of Reusa. Their hope is to incorporate outreach into a third block within the next three months.
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