The mountain population living in rural areas depends heavily on forests for daily needs of fuel, fodder, food and livelihood support activities. Regular collection of fuelwood for domestic needs of cooking, water and room heating, cattle-feed preparation, bathing, cleaning and washing is considered one of the major reasons for forest degradation, women drudgery and household carbon emissions. Alternative commercial sources of energy like LPG, electricity and kerosene oil fail to address the requirement of households in the temperate zone due to harsh winter conditions for 6–8 months in a year for demand of water and space heating. Therefore, the present study was initiated to install a locally designed, cost-effective solar water-heating systems with the aim of providing immediate clean energy solutions to the mountain households for water heating to achieve forest conservation, mitigate household carbon emission and women drudgery in fuelwood collection. Installation of 204 locally fabricated solar water-heating systems of 100 l/day capacity was completed in two sites in Mandi and Kullu districts of Himachal Pradesh, India. Installation of these systems on an average achieved saving of 31.47% and 45.41% fuelwood at selected villages of Kullu and Mandi sites respectively. Maximum fuelwood saving through solar water heating was observed in the winter season. This resulted in timesaving for women, and visible improvement in their health and hygiene through availability of hot water. Fabrication of solar water-heating systems provided new skills and avenues to the rural artisans. This initiative of solar energy use in water heating has resulted in significant environmental, social and economic benefits.
Keywords
Carbon Emission, Fuelwood Consumption, Solar Water-heating System, Temperate Forests.
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