bihar rice husks

• Bihar is a state in north-east India (an NEE) where approximately 85% of people were not connected to the electricity grid, particularly in the most rural areas. People that were connected often had an unreliable supply.
• In 2007, a scheme began to use local biomass to supply more homes with electricity by using rice husks - a waste product from producing rice for food. These rice husks are collected & used to generate electricity in small, local power plants.
• Each power plant has a simple design (intermediate technology) & the scheme is kept sustainable as local people are trained in management, operations & maintenance which provides jobs & reduces reliance on external organisations and expertise.
• By 2015, over 80 rice husk power plants were operating in Bihar, supplying electricity to approximately 200000 people
• Generating electricity from biomass reduced reliance on diesel generators & kerosene lamps, therefore reducing fossil fuel use