Practical Application of Solar Energy at Desert of Tharparkar, Pakistan
Tharparkar is a backward district of Sindh, Pakistan. Most of the rural population of this district suffers from poverty and is deprived of very basic necessities of life such as drinking water and electricity. Demographic pattern was the main hurdle for
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Abstract Tharparkar is a backward district of Sindh, Pakistan. Most of the rural population of this district suffers from poverty and is deprived of very basic necessities of life such as drinking water and electricity. Demographic pattern was the main hurdle for rural electrification as the villages are scattered far apart in a random manner and a grid supplied electrical distribution was not technically feasible. Solar energy is one of the alternatives for rural electrification and other applications at desert of Tharparkar. This chapter presents the practical applications of solar energy at desert of Tharparkar, Pakistan. Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) has successfully electrified 50 villages of Tharparkar district through about 168 kW of DC power. A solar refrigerator has also been installed at BHU of village Khensir taluka Chacharo to store vaccines for snake bites and other lifesaving drugs. Remarkable socioeconomic and sociocultural change has been visualized in the dark areas which has been brightened through solar energy. Keywords Rural electrification • Socioeconomic development • Solar energy • Solar home systems • Solar refrigeration • Tharparkar
1 Introduction Tharparkar district constitutes the extreme southeastern district of Sindh province. In the north it joins with Mirpur Khas and Umerkot districts. In the west it joins with Badin district and in the east with Rajasthan (India). In the south lies the marshy wasteland of Rann of Kutch. The area is dominated by vast land of undulating sand mountains and
K. Harijan (*) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro 76062, Pakistan e-mail: [email protected] M.A. Uqaili and K. Harijan (eds.), Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, DOI 10.1007/978-3-7091-0109-4_15, # Springer-Verlag/Wien 2012
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Fig. 1 Map of Tharparkar
equals 19,638 square kilometers. The population of the district is about 1.4 million and the majority lives in small clusters of rural areas. The district has four administrative blocks known as Talukas (Tehsil), namely, Diplo, Mithi, Chachro, and Nagarparkar as shown in Figure 1. Most of the rural population suffers from poverty and is deprived of very basic necessities of life such as drinking water and electricity. It is the demanding state of district that prompted the government to launch the “Roshan Pakistan” program with the solar photo-voltaic technologies in the rural area of Tharparkar [1–4].
2 Background Tharparkar is a backward district of Sindh which has just started receiving the enlightened rays of modern civilization. Only a decade ago, distances of a few scores of kilometers were covered in days and when the Second World War vintage truck was brought in, they had to negotiate sand dunes and use PSP sheets where traction was not possible. By all definitions, life was primitive if not prehistoric. It started with the rise of sun and went into deep slumber with its setting [4–5].
Practical Application of
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