Meerwada, a village in Central India’s Madhya Pradesh province,  recently received solar power services through a California-based company named SunEdison.  This company tackled Meerwada as the first of many villages to receive electricity in their Eradication of Darkness Program.  They connect 50 houses, run a small solar plant and let people use energy as they deem fit.  Every household pays $1 to $1.50 per month, equal to what they pay for kerosene.

According to Time, more than 40% of India’s countryside is not connected to the national power grid, and power demand in India trails supply by 12%.  It will be crucial for India to close the gap in order to achieve growth targets and stick to its goal of cutting carbon emissions by 20% to 25% by 2020.  The solar power services are practical, since there are around 300 sunny days a year nationwide.

This graph from Wikipedia shows the increase of solar energy expected to be used by India’s energy sector.