Barefoot College Trains Low-Income Villagers to be Solar Engineers

A Rajasthan based organization called Barefoot College that trains low-income men and women to be 'solar engineers'  in rural remote and non-electrified villages is making its mark across India, and around the world. 

The  organization, which has been operative in India since 1972, recently trained 6 grandmothers from rural, north western Zambia to assemble and build circuits and solar lanterns, solar lamps, charge controllers, choke coils and transformers, and learn to correctly connect modules, batteries, lamps and charge controllers. Solar engineers at Barefoot College are also trained to install, test, repair and maintain fixed solar lighting units and solar lanterns for a period of at least five years. A rural electrification workshop is also set up, which houses the components and equipment needed for the repair and installation of solar units. 

To date, the organization has trained almost 500 engineers, installed about 15,000 fixed solar units and built about 8,500 lanterns. The engineers, many of whom are women, get a steady source of income, while the village gets electricity. 

Barefoot College aims to make the electrification projects as locally run and self-sustaining as possible: a council of village elders forms a Village Environment Energy Committee, and every family that wants solar lighting must pay a monthly contribution towards the project -- this pays for the solar engineer, as well as the equipment.