Bringing off-grid electricity to rural villages in India: Opportunities and pitfalls for solar photovoltaics

India with its aspiring goal of “energy access to all”, its idealistic policies and its systemic failure in meeting its growing energy demand, found itself trapped in transition towards a sound and open energy sector. Despite being the world´s third largest electricity producer, around 300 million people lacks access to electricity in 25,722 un-electrified villages throughout the country. Majority of them live below poverty line, lack clean cooking facilities, depend mostly on kerosene for lighting and diesel for irrigation. Though the electrification rates had increased considerably in the recent years under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission the government has failed to achieve the target of 100 percent electrification due to the fact, that the need for electricity is not often translated to potential demand in rural and remote areas. Also the measures of providing access to electricity to all did not assure a reliable qualitative power supply. Deployment of off-grid solar Photo Voltaic electricity generation with a holistic approach involving interactions between government, non government organizations, corporate sectors and community will bring improvements in economic opportunities, education, health and social welfare of people living in rural areas. This paper mainly discusses the offgrid rural electrification opportunities by harnessing solar potential in India, its challenges in terms of political, economical and technical contexts and the involved communal benefits with a case study.