India’s Tata Power and The Rockefeller Foundation have formed a company to deploy 10,000 microgrids through 2026 in a bid to bring clean power to five million homes across India.
The new company, TP Renewable Microgrid, will scale up microgrid deployment in collaboration with Smart Power India (SPI) and the Institute for Transformative Technologies.
TP Renewable Microgrid will be operated and managed by Tata Power. SPI, which was launched by The Rockefeller Foundation in 2015, will provide technical expertise gained from building microgrids in rural India.
Over the next decade, the initiative aims to bring clean power to households and businesses that suffer from poor reliability and coverage by traditional grid-based power.
Rural businesses and households continue to rely on alternative sources to power daily needs— with more than 40% of rural enterprises in states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh relying on non-grid sources of power such as diesel.
Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, said: “We have an unprecedented opportunity to transform the lives of millions of people in India by providing access to power.
“Providing reliable electricity to the communities that need it most is one of the best ways for us to end poverty and unleash economic opportunity in our lifetimes.”
In September, The Rockefeller Foundation also announced the launch of the Global Commission to End Energy Poverty (GCEEP) to fast-track sustainable power solutions, investments, and partnerships that will be deployed globally over the next decade.
