Schools in India’s West Bengal adopt solar energy to help reach the country’s green goals

Before the school was equipped with solar through a government project in 2018, Sapan said it struggled with low and fluctuating power voltage, particularly in the summers when the main grid became overburdened.

“But today the quality of power has much improved,” he said. “Solar energy can be so powerful, it runs my whole school.”

West Bengal’s Sunshine Schools project aims to lower carbon emissions and bring cheap, reliable energy to the state’s classrooms by swapping traditional grid electricity supplies for solar power produced onsite by grid-connected systems.

Solar power is a cheap, reliable way to bring energy to places that might have issues sustaining electricity.

Saktiram Das, the teacher monitoring the solar system at Akshaynagar Jnanadamoyee Vidyaniketan High School, said its students had gained a new appreciation of green energy.

“Our students now get to see and understand the real-time efficacy of solar power,” he said.

“They learn from a young age the importance of clean energy and how it keeps our environment clean.”

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The project run by the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency (WBREDA) aims to add at least 250 megawatts of solar power to the grid by 2030, said governing board member Ratan Mondal.

“One of our basic aims ... is to connect remote schools with robust and easily available power, so that even rural children can benefit from the latest educational facilities,” Mondal explained.

The project has so far covered 1,800 schools across the state, and plans to install mini solar energy plants - each costing 450,000 rupees (HK$47,831) - in 1,000 schools every year, eventually reaching a total of 25,000, he added.

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Besides cutting planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions and providing power, the switch to solar also substantially reduced the schools’ energy bills.

Any extra solar power generated is added to the national grid. This helps offset the cost of what schools take from the grid when their solar systems cannot meet their needs, such as on a cloudy day, Mondal explained.

Mithila Shyamal, a senior teacher at the Bankisole Akshoy Kumar Institution, a secondary school in Bankura district, said before getting its solar panels, the school paid 15,000-17,000 rupees (HK$1,594-HK$1,807) every three months for energy.

The school is located in the Indian state of West Bengal.

But over the past two years, that has come down to nearly nothing. The school has used the savings for activities such as tree-planting, hiring teachers, and sanitation upkeep, he added.

For the first five years after installation, the WBREDA covers the maintenance costs for the school solar plants.

After that, schools pay maintenance fees of about 9,000 rupees (HK$957) once a year - a fraction of their previous electricity bills, said Pranay Singh, an electrical engineer working with the WBREDA to install the systems.

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Burning fossil fuels for energy, transport, and industry is the main source of the emissions heating up the Earth’s climate. About 70 per cent of India’s electricity generation comes from fossil fuels, according to government figures.

Rabin Roy, managing director of Suncraft Energy, the first company to start installations for the Sunshine Schools project, said the systems allow each school to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 tonnes a year. That is about the same amount as a car produces driving 40,230 km.

India has committed to cutting its carbon intensity, or its emissions per unit of gross domestic product, by about 35 per cent compared to 2005 levels, aiming to reach this goal by 2030.

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The country wants to raise its renewable power capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) - or 40 per cent of total capacity - this decade, including 100GW from solar, up from about 35GW today.

Binoy Krishna Choudhury, who teaches energy management at the Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management in Kolkata, said the Sunshine Schools project is a reliable, cheap way to move India toward its green goals.

The mini plants only require a one-time investment for installation and, because they are connected to the grid, do not need batteries.

These so-called “fit and forget” systems are also efficient as they feed any extra energy into the grid, he noted.

Installing more solar energy panels is a good way to push India closer to its green energy goals.

At Bogdahara Siddikiya High Madrasah, a school for minority students in Bankura district, the solar system has opened up new opportunities for students, said senior teacher Liakat Ali.

The consistent power supply and energy cost savings have allowed the school to run computer classes and activities including mock parliamentary sessions and health programmes.

The project has also highlighted the benefits of solar far beyond the school gates, Ali said.

He said, “The system is spreading awareness not only among students, but also in their homes and the surrounding villages.”