Solarise Delhi Campaign
A community-based campaign focused on climate sustainable behaviour that builds trust and awareness through word of mouth and social media and encourages individual households to adopt rooftop solar
Safdarjung and Karkardooma, New Delhi, India | 1 November 2020 – 31 January 2021
Delhi is one of the most polluted cities in the world. There is high dependence on thermal power generation which worsens air pollution, necessitating a switch to alternative energy sources.
Delhi set a target of 1 GW of rooftop solar (RTS) capacity by 2020, but to date has only installed about 0.2 GW. Recognising the urgent need to encourage sustainable choices at the household level, the U.S.-India Clean Energy Finance Task Force, co-led by the U.S. Department of State and India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, tailored the solarize campaign model to the local context through its collaborating partners — the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW), SmartPower and WeeGreen — in partnership with the local electricity distribution companies and resident welfare associations (RWAs). Solarise campaigns are high-impact, local community campaigns organized by an easy-to-access online platform designed to increase consumer adoption of solar power in a community, by harnessing the power of peer-to-peer, word-of-mouth outreach and social networks to influence decisions to install solar during a defined period. The solarize campaign model offers a sustainable business model in which all stakeholders – the solar developers, financiers, home-owners, the campaign organizers, communities and utilities – can share in the benefits of the net revenues of solar generated through these campaigns to increase awareness and resident adoption of rooftop solar. In New Delhi, these campaigns had to radically adjust to the Covid-19 pandemic, with all outreach occurring virtually.
From November 2020 to January 2021, the campaign targeted two residential communities in Delhi -Karkardooma and Safdarjung. Through this utility-led, community-based approach to increasing adoption of residential solar power, the campaigns harnessed the trusted relationships with the local utility and RWAs to influence consumer rooftop solar system purchase decisions.
More info & Social Media
https://solarisesafdarjung.wee.green
https://www.facebook.com/solarisesafdarjung
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-mZWU8rZLZ0SskL3wsx1Eg/videos
Editor’s Note: All information published as submitted by the author(s). Minor edits may have been made to increase readability and understanding.
