On a warm and humid morning in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh last September, Chetan Singh Solanki stepped off a bus he’d been living in for the past 10 months and walked into a high school auditorium in the small town of Raisen, where 200 students, teachers, and officials had gathered to hear him speak.
A solar energy professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai, Solanki is a slender man in his mid-40s with a boyish appearance and a quick smile that are assets for the mission he’s on. In late 2020 he took a leave to make an 11-year road trip around India to inspire action to fight climate change.
Solar panels
Solanki’s vehicle is a mobile demonstration of the utility of renewable energy: Solar panels generate enough electricity to run the lights, fans, computers, stove, and television on board. After being garlanded and welcomed on the stage, Solanki made an unusual request.
“I see 15 ceiling fans in this room. It’s the middle of the day, there’s so much sunlight outside, yet we have so many lights on in here,” he said. “Do we really need all of these fans and lights? Let’s turn some of them off and see if we’ll be ok with it.”
A couple of students got up to do what he asked. “Leave some of them on, though!” Solanki joked when one student got carried away.
With half the lights and fans switched off, the auditorium felt warmer and darker. But, Solanki asked, did it really matter all that much? “We can see one another just fine, which means there’s sufficient light in this room,” he said. “Is anyone feeling distressed because some fans have been turned off? Thinking, Oh God, how am I going to make it?” The audience laughed.
The point Solanki was making is one of two that he hopes will persuade Indians to achieve what he calls Energy Swaraj, or energy self-reliance. One idea is to save energy directly by reducing usage and indirectly by consuming less stuff.
The other is to generate electricity locally from renewable resources such as the sun, so every town becomes self-sufficient. During the next decade, India’s greenhouse gas emissions are projected to increase steeply as the economy expands and the population grows to 1.5 billion, surpassing China’s population.
“Humankind’s lust for never ending economic growth is rapidly changing the planet’s climate,” he said. “Our arrogance makes us think we can keep increasing consumption without consequence. But the world has finite resources. Unless we change our ways, future generations will have to endure great suffering.”
Solanki grew up in a small village and was the first in his family to get a college degree. At IIT, he founded a centre for solar cell technology.
Aiming to kick-start a grassroots solar revolution, he started a nonprofit called the Energy Swaraj Foundation, which trains rural women to assemble and sell solar lamps and rooftop panels.
Climate crisis
Three years ago he started thinking about how Mohandas Gandhi—whom Solanki idolises—might have responded to the climate crisis.
That’s how he came up with the road trip: He’s hoping to spark a mass movement, just as Gandhi did when he led a historic 25-day, 241-mile march during India’s freedom struggle against British rule.
Solanki’s exhortation to live simply may seem surprising in a country with such low per capita consumption.
On average, Indians use goods and services worth about a thousand dollars a year—one-fortieth of what Americans do. Yet Solanki’s approach could be critical to India’s efforts to reduce its contribution to global warming.
At the country’s current rate of economic growth, the middle class is expected to double by 2030, to 800 million. This will be a welcome milestone for India because it will lift many out of poverty.
But it also will mean a tsunami of new consumers who will want spacious homes and air conditioners and appliances and cars, significantly increasing the country’s carbon footprint.
National Geographic