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Husk Power Systems, a startup out of UVA’s Darden School of Business, is already providing electricity to nearly 10,000 rural Indians utilizing rice husk generators that run on piles of rice mill waste product. The proprietary technology and business model is brilliant because it provides three solutions to critical problems in India: 1) A lack of reliable electricity, which is a huge obstacle in rural India; 2) A reduction of carbon emissions that amounts to nearly 200 tons per village annually, and 3) The ability to bring new technology to remote villages that are struggling to keep up with the industrialized world. It’s no wonder Husk Power just won $50,000 at the University of Texas Social Innovation Competition for having the “most compelling new idea to change the world,” $1,000 for the People’s Choice Awards, $10,000 from Darden’s annual business plan competition and top 10 finalist recognition at the University of California at Berkeley Global Social Venture Competition. On top of all that, the team is currently a top 10 finalist in this year’s Ignite Clean Energy at MIT for the top prize of $125,000.

The story of the founders, Sinha and Pandey, is quite impressive since they actually grew up in the rural areas that struggled without electricity. Their relatives still didn’t have any until they decided to go back and implement their idea. Although their first plan was to refine the concept and just raise enough money to donate rice-husk generators to two to three villages where they grew up, they found through research and feedback that they could actually turn their concept into a viable business model. This has been in part made possible by their realization that the byproduct of ash from the process could be sold as a valuable ingredient for cement production and the new Kyoto Protocol gas emissions trading program would in part pay for the generators, both of which push the break even point to two and a half years.

Before Husk Power Systems, village houses, irrigation pumps, water purifications units and small businesses all relied on intermittent power, which was often on for only an hour a day. As you can imagine, getting the electricity from the plants to villages proved to be an arduous task, especially since in many cases villages would illegally tap into main power lines during down times and sometimes even cut down the lines to sell for scrap metal. (Average personal incomes are less than $20 a month). However, in an article, Ransler explains their strategies to tackle the issue:

They will require pre-payment for all electricity, and they will spend more to wire the village using double-insulated wire that is more difficult to illegally tap into than standard wire. Since electrical meters cost $10 to $15 each, and an average household will consume only about $15 to $18 of electricity per year, Husk Power will instead use a $1 circuit breaker to distribute electricity to a branch line serving four or five households. A Husk Power employee in the village will conduct a basic energy audit to determine how much electrical load the branch of houses will need and will install a circuit breaker that allows only that much current to reach the houses. Any illegal tap or other excessive consumption will trip the circuit breaker, cutting off power to all four or five houses, giving the community an incentive to work together to prevent excess consumption.

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