The Brahma Kumaris have been world pioneers in the installation and use of solar energy within large communities. Some of its achievements include:
- Installing solar hot water facilities that provide nearly 60,000L per day for bathing on the Madhuban and Gyan Sarovar campuses;
- Constructing a solar steam cooking system capable of producing 35,000 meals per day on the Shantivan campus in 1998. This system, which has been running successfully for the past seven years, consists of 84 parabolic concentrators and daily generates 3500 Kg of steam.
- Installing an efficient solar steam cooking system with a dish size of 12.6 square metres at the Global Hospital and Research Centre in Mt. Abu to provide steam for the canteen, sterilizers and laundry.
- Installing a 50 kW solar photovoltaic power plant with Sunpower inverter on each of the three campuses in 2000, providing unlimited power for computer, sound and emergency lighting systems;
- Equipping the 1,000 year old village of Salgaon, which borders the Gyan Sarovar campus, with solar street lighting, solar lanterns and solar cooking boxes; similar assistance to other neighbouring villages is planned or is already being provided.
- Making solar technological expertise available to other large residential complexes within the Brahma Kumaris network in India. For example, a steam cooking system for 600 people has been set up in Yellapur (Hubli) and a system capable of providing meals for 2000 people has been completed at the Om Shanti Retreat Centre near New Delhi.
- With the help of World Bank funding, equipping 60 centres in India with a 5kW solar PV system and providing 300 centres with a 1 kW system.
- Promoting renewable energy technology and making it available to the public at affordable prices by providing information and selling thousands of solar lanterns, as well as hundreds of home lighting systems and solar cooking boxes, through its Solar Shop on the Shantivan campus.
Renewable Energy Partners
- Advanced Energy Systems, Perth, Australia
- Brahma Kumaris Educational Society, Mumbai, India
- Charitable Trust to Promote Social, Medical and Cultural Institutions in India, Bremen, Germany
- ECO Centre, Valsad, Gujarat, India
- Government of Australia, AusAid, Australian High Commission, New Delhi, India
- Government of Germany, the German Agency for Technical Operations (GTZ), Eschborn, Germany
- Government of India, Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES), New Delhi, India
- Hoch Temperatur Technik/High Temperature Technology (HTT), Herford, Germany
- IndiaCare, Berlin, Germany
- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India
- Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), India
- Institute of Solar Energy Technologies (ISET), Kassel, Germany
- Kassel University, Research Laboratory for Experimental Building, Kassel, Germany
- Siemens Solar, India
- Solar Bruecke, Germany
- Sunpower, Bad Vilbel, Germany
- The World Bank, Washington, USA
- ULOG, Solar Research, Switzerland
For more information on Brahma Kumaris Renewable Energy Projects, please visit http://www.bkun.org/earth/renew.html