Sun powers South India tourism

Responsible Tourism Initiative brings alternative energy to Kerala

Tourism is indeed a powerful tool to find solutions for many of the development challenges. Knowledge sharing about responsible destination development is an important pre requisite for the creating massive large scale impact. This brought together 5 operators who formed the ‘The Green Circuit’ (TGC) ready to exchange ideas and insights about and from the locations they were actively working in the Indian Sub Continent.

The aim was to create a platform which facilitates the sharing of information regarding community engagement, conservation, natural and cultural preservation and disseminate it in a way that other similar outfits are not forced to reinvent the wheel and waste scarce resources.

On the 3rd of August 2012, two of the members of The Green Circuit – Ecosphere and The Blue Yonder came together to support the installation of one of the country’s first on-grid-solar power plant at the Institute of Palliative Medicine in Calicut, Kerala.

How did it happen? Gopi Parayil of  TBY says: "Sunil (Ecosphere) and our team at The Blue Yonder have been meeting over the last 7 years. Our every meeting is filled with conservations around our work, the challenges and pitfalls and brainstorming sessions of how we can innovate to address these gaps."

"Considering that we all work in different locations with different contexts, this narrative has been a powerful tool that has brought us repeatedly to each other’s workspace. When Sunil had to recover from a recent knee problem, he didn’t think twice about coming to Kerala, known for its ancient knowledge of healing through martial arts and Ayurveda."

"We recommended one of our partner’s healing centre (Hindustan Kalari Sangam) in the City of Calicut, which also gave him access to another strategic partners of ours, the Pain and Palliative Care Society, that spearheads the palliative care movement in India. We had shared several powerful stories, case studies and anecdotes even before he met our promoters and local volunteers."

"Sunil expressed an interest in documenting the hundreds of stories from past two decades so that success and failures of our initiatives can be shared with the outside world. He wanted to begin with his contacts who work in the renewable energy space. Those volunteers and companies who supported building renewable energy projects in the cold deserts of the Himalayas came down to the sea port of Calicut to set up the first solar power plant so that the Institute of Palliative Medicine campus can be less dependent on the power grid. IPM, a world leader in community based palliative care is now a role model for a country that’s struggling to meet the ever-increasing energy demand."

Funds needed for the installation were provided by the Samah and Sarah Trust, and the technical support were provided by Sunlit Future, a Pondicherry based company with experience in installing similar panels in Spiti Valley.

Dr Suresh Kumar, Director of IPM said, " We have been working on building compassionate destinations and the partnerships with responsible travel companies like Ecosphere and The Blue Yonder probably will help us reach out to larger segment of the society in our country and beyond".

The power produced from the solar system in the day time will be synchronised with the incoming grid. While the power produced will be first used to meet the requirements of the electrical load connected to the IPM building, if the solar power produced during the day is not able to meet the connected electrical load requirement then the inverter will automatically draw the deficient power from the grid and supply to the electrical load.

If the solar power produced during the day is more than what the connected electrical load needs, then the surplus power will be exported to the grid. Hence, the grid acts like a storage device similar to what the battery does for an OFF Grid solar PV System strengthening the existing grid. Currently, one fourth of the energy requirements of IPM can be met by the installation.

Valere Tjolle
GOPINATH PARAYIL TALKS AT THIS YEAR’S SUSTAINABLE TOURISM MASTERCLASS