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08/17/2010

Odanthurai Panchayat, an administrative grouping of eleven villages in the south east Indian state of Tamil Nadu, has performed many experiments with renewable energy. All were driven by a need to reduce public electricity bills, as the population of Odanthurai is rising rapidly. Solar streetlights are installed as part of all new housing projects in the Panchayat, and a community nightsoil-based biogas plant created clean cooking gas from human excrement. The latter scheme, however, has faced problems due to social stigma. A biomass gasifier was used for five years to power a water filtration and pumping system, which has helped reduce water-born diseases in Odanthurai to almost zero. In 2006, the Panchayat took a commercial loan to purchase a 350kW wind turbine in a nearby wind farm, a move highly unusual for a public body. Once the loan is repaid, the net balance of the electricity produced by the turbine will not only reduce public electricity bills in the Panchayat to zero, it will also provide an income of nearly Rs. 800,000/year.