In India, poor and marginalized communities face the dual challenges of low socioeconomic development and extreme vulnerability to climate change. Although there have been significant improvements in India’s rural household electrification, electricity availability for health centers, schools, and rural enterprises is still limited. Decentralized solar energy solutions are increasingly considered for bringing reliable electricity to community facilities, especially in climate vulnerable areas.
This report explores the impacts of climate related events on electricity needs, whether decentralized solar solutions consider climate change in the lifecycle of the installation, and if not, then what factors need to be considered. It further analyses 14 decentralized solar energy systems installed in community-level healthcare, education, and livelihood facilities in climate vulnerable regions across these three states. For this report’s purposes, decentralized solar energy solutions refer to stand-alone or minigrid-sized installations that provide electricity supply to facilities such as schools, health centers, and communities.