The Smart Power India (SPI) initiative has electrified 8 villages in Jharkhand state with green mini-grids. Women who earn a living from processing rice are now using electric hullers and fans to hull and winnow rice, and the impact has been huge: the amount of rice hulled daily has increased 100x from 20kg to 2,000kg.
The women used to work from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. before the start of household chores, using polluting kerosene for lighting. No longer. In addition, villagers are using the mini-grid to power irrigation pumps, allowing farmers to harvest more than one crop per season (by eliminating manual hauling of water) and to increase yields.