Rajiv J Shah, the Indian- American president of the Rockefeller Foundation, will visit India from February 12 to 15 as part of the US-based philanthropic organization's efforts to help the government electrify villages across the country.

For several years, the foundation and its non-profit subsidiary Smart Power India have worked with a network of partners and private energy service companies to build rural mini-grids that serve off-grid populations for both domestic and productive uses.

As of now, more than 130 mini-grids are energising more than 5,000 enterprises in India's most energy-starved states, transforming the lives of over 45,000 Indians.

Observing that India is making tremendous progress in bringing new power generation to the grid system, Shah said while the foundation's work right now focuses on communities that don't have access to the grid, he hopes India will expand its grid and transmission system more aggressively into lower-income communities.

India has dramatically increased the contribution of wind power and solar power to its total power sourcing, he said.

In India last spring, wholesale solar power prices reached a record low, dropping 40 percent in a year to only 2.62 Rs per kilowatt hour.

Read the full article on energy access in India by Lalit K Jha at Businessworld