- Case Study 6 -

Passive Solar Housing

GERES - Inde

Context

-    Leh and Kargil District (Jammu & Kashmir) as well as Lahaul & Spiti (Himachal Pradesh) are remote valleys in Himalayan range in northern India where villages are isolated for more than six months per year, access passes being closed because of the snow

-    These desert areas are lying at 3,000m above sea level.

-    During the harsh and long winter, temperatures frequently fall below -20°C, but the area benefits from an exceptional sunshine for more than 300 days per year.

-    Shortage of local fuel and the high price of imported fossil fuels result in energy vulnerability. Women and children spend around two months per summer to gather dung and bush in pasture lands.

-    Traditional houses are thermally poorly efficient and room temperatures fall below -10°C in winter, resulting in unhealthy living conditions.

-    Even though families have plenty of time in winter, few activities are possible due to very cold temperature.

Brief Description of the Project and Results

The “Passive Solar Housing” project specific objective is to improve livelihoods of rural populations living in those remote areas by improving unhealthy winter conditions, alleviating energy vulnerability and enabling the development of income generation in the newly improved habitat.

The project aims at improving the rural population livelihoods by integrating energy efficiency technology in 1,000 rural houses and community buildings in 100 villages. Local masons and carpenter are trained in order to supervise the construction and to ensure the quality. Stakeholders are organised in network to promote and disseminate energy efficiency initiatives.

Main Achievements and Lessons Learnt Regarding Scaling Up Mechanisms

1. The demand has been generated by: (1) demonstration through “influent people” who other community members wish to imitate, (2) experience sharing by these first ‘promoters’ , (3) developing design according to regional and cultural trends (fashion), (4)  exposure visit (organized during selection process) in existing PSH and (5) awareness raising campaign through modern media (TV, Radio).
2. Capacity building of masons and carpenters as service provider is key activity in order to (1) supply the generated demand, (2) convince people that want to build house (who trust mason to make design)and (3) ensure construction quality.
3. It is easier to generate demand for solar gain techniques (visible and fashionable) than insulation techniques.
4. Public building is a good entry point to initiate collaboration with government and in a second phase to mainstream energy efficiency in domestic housing.
5. Achieving the twofold goal of (1) enabling poor to integrate energy efficiency and (2) implementing condition for sustainable scaling up is challenging.
6. Subsidy is required for demonstration but limit replication as villagers expect subsidy and may not take own initiative