MacArthur Program - SocialAlpha

Overview

In Jharkhand, 80% of the population’s livelihood relies on agriculture, which is becoming increasingly vulnerable due to climate change, erratic rainfall, and water scarcity. This vulnerability is intensified by the fact that the per capita income is 40% lower than the national average, underscoring the critical need for climate resilience and adaptation strategies. Furthermore, limited access to reliable energy and clean fuels exacerbates health issues and economic growth challenges. With India’s commitment to phasing down coal to achieve net-zero emissions, it’s imperative to create alternative economic avenues and diversify Jharkhand’s economy for an equitable energy transition.

Multiple nations and geographies have proven results to demonstrate that innovation is at the heart of successful, sustainable and just energy transitions, essential in mitigating the impact of climate change while improving energy security in hard to abate sectors. Innovators and entrepreneurs have the potential to disruptively enable the state of Jharkhand to move to clean energy, while facilitating alternative forms of employment for vulnerable communities at the margin and ensuring a better quality of life.

This Social Alpha initiative, in collaboration with the MacArthur Foundation, Sustainable Just Transition Task Force, and Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), aims to position Jharkhand at the forefront of India’s clean energy landscape. It envisages pilot demonstrations in vulnerable districts, offering a blueprint for scaling up and diffusing clean energy innovations throughout the state. Ultimately, it seeks to propel Jharkhand toward meeting subnational net-zero goals with a well-defined action plan, thus charting a path to a more sustainable and resilient future.

PROBLEM AREAS

Energy Transition

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Ecosystem restoration

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Livelihood

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Energy Transition

Focus Areas

Energy Access

Access to clean cooking energy: Unavailability of affordable, clean fuel and solution for cooking with significantly lower/no emissions and tailored to end-user's design and quality expectations, combined with after-sales service. High recurring cost of clean fuel such as biogas and supply chain gaps and lack of standardised and homogeneous feedstock for improved biomass fuel.
Productive use: High upfront cost and lack of efficient renewable energy based productive appliances and components leading to dependence on fossil fuels for reliable energy access.
Micro-Enterprise Industrial Clusters (MSMEs): Lack of clean, affordable, and efficient small scale industrial equipment and processes leading to high dependence on fossil fuel for food processing, glass, foundry, textile, paper and pulp, chemical, and ceramic micro and small industrial clusters resulting in high GHG emissions.

Energy Efficiency

High overall cost of cooling solutions: High CAPEX and OPEX cost of cooling solutions such as (HVACs, ACs, and Coolers) for residential and commercial purposes. Prohibitive cost of highly efficient solutions such as BEE 5-star rated BLDC motor-based fans.
Waste heat recovery: Lack of cost-effective and energy-efficient solutions for recovery of low-grade waste heat in the MSME sector.
In-efficient appliances and components: Lack of cost-effective and efficient industrial components such as motors, compressors, pumps, etc. (In many MSMEs the core equipment motors are source of significant energy consumption, and currently the sector is dependent on low-standard IE1 or IE2 motors due to prohibitive cost of IE3 motors).

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy technology: Unavailability of cost-competitive high-performing renewable energy technology, due to high R&D costs, and long technology development timelines.
Adoption of decentralised renewable energy solutions: Limited adoption of existing decentralized renewable energy solutions that have lower LCOE as compared to the central electricity grid tariffs, due to high upfront costs, integration and grid failure issues, and constraints for land and rooftop spaces acquisition.

Energy Storage

High upfront cost of batteries: Lack of affordable battery technologies with high performance that can cater to stationary (micro-grids/mini-grids, off-grids, and long duration) and mobility applications (2W, 3W, and last mile logistics)
Use of exploitatively mined minerals: High dependence on exploitatively mined minerals such as Li, Ni, Co, V and Gr as raw materials for components of the battery cells resulting in significant GHG emissions.
Inefficient recycling and lack of second-use batteries: Highly energy intensive recycling process and lack of solutions providing second-use batteries with less than 80% of original rated capacity.

Sustainable Mobility

Lack of robust powertrain component manufacturing: High import dependence for powertrain components like efficient motors, controllers and drives, leading to prohibitive costs.
Lack of availability of affordable non-fossil fuel-based mechanised mobility solutions in farming: High upfront cost and feasibility for adoption of mechanised mobility equipment like electric tractors, electric tillers, etc.

Ecosystem Restoration

Focus Areas

Air Quality

Monitoring: Lack of devices/technologies able to provide reference grade monitoring of air pollutants at low cost.
At source abatement, Indoor air purification: Lack of cost-effective air pollution control/capture technologies.
Indoor Air Purification: Lack of sustainable alternatives to conventional filter material for indoor air purification.

Water Scarcity, Access & Quality

Scarcity Premature exhaustion/drying up of source and overextraction of groundwater leading to acute water shortage; Improper stormwater management leading to cases of flooding and inefficient treatment practices.
Access Inefficiencies in the distribution network/operations and maintenance of pipelines; High dependence on non-networked sources of water such as water tankers resulting in challenges related to O&M, groundwater, and water quality
Quality Presence of niche mineral and metal contaminants in water, and resulting impact on quality of safe drinking water.

Sewage & Industrial Wastewater Management

Insufficient decentralised treatment infrastructure leading to untreated domestic wastewater and chemical contamination from industrial wastewater
Prevalence of manual scavenging leading to adverse health impact on the lives of scavengers

Livelihood

Focus Areas

Small Farm Mechanisation

Drudgery & labour equity: Labour intensive operations in farming such as sowing/planting, input application, inter-cultivation, and harvesting results in high dependence on manual labour and higher cultivation costs due to labour scarcity and limited operating time.
Unavailability: Lack of appropriately designed equipment that meet the needs of small and marginal farmers.
Affordability: High capital expenditure and operating costs due to fossil fuel dependency make small farm mechanisation economically unviable, thereby limiting its adoption by small and marginal farmers.

Post-Harvest Management

Rapid quality decline due to limited shelf life
Limited market for the sale of low-grade produce
Limited opportunity to sell, leading to uncertain returns

Soil Diagnostics

Soil analysis: Lack of quick (< single day analysis), accurate ( >95%), affordable (< INR 50/test), on farm soil analysis tools leaves SMF unawares of soil deficiencies before applying inputs, hence forcing non-scientific and aggressive use of soil inputs.
Soil and crop advisory: Soil and Crop Advisory provided to SMF is generic, lacks farm specificity (crop, soil and water resource based), lacks contextualisation to existing PoPs leading to input use increase, but not translating to equivalent income increase.
Soil pollution: Ex-situ synthetic plastics disintegrate into the soil thus leading to soil, air and water pollution, and lack of technology to viably manage composting of bio- plastics (like mulch sheets) at farmgate which leads to farm litter, and soil pollution.

Small Farm Water Management

Groundwater management Over-exploitation of groundwater resources with limited recharge potential, lack of aquifer mapping and management has led to decline in the water table.
Surface water management High distribution losses, sub-optimal water management makes water access a challenge. Water bodies face high levels of contamination, many have been encroached thus leading to reduced potential of groundwater recharge and outlet for flood water.
On-farm water Use Mis-aligned cropping patterns, practice of flood irrigation, poor soil quality, distorted water pricing, subsidized electricity costs and poor adoption of water resilient agricultural practices have led to dismal state of water management in agriculture.
Pumping technology Unreliable and poor-quality electricity access has led to dependence on fossil fuels for water pumping leading to high operational costs and emissions.
Water quality Pollution of water bodies and increased concentration of salts in aquifers due to over-extraction of groundwater has led to use of poor-quality water in agriculture resulting in low productivity, nutrient deficient produce, and gradual death of the plant in some cases.
Rainwater harvesting Erratic rainfall patterns, large and expensive storage structures, local hydrogeology not considered while constructing structures and poor maintenance makes rainwater harvesting ineffective for smallholder farmers.

Soil Rejuvenation

Nutrient uptake in crops - Uncontrolled use of chemicals & pesticides has degraded soil microbiology and on farm biodiversity leading to low nutrient uptake and resilience of crops
Soil balancing technologies - Lack of diverse soil carbon balancing technologies and measures on farm is leading to water and nutrient runoff, microbiology loss and cultivation cost increase for SMF.
Disruption of carbon nitrogen Cycle - Through human interference and mis-selection of inputs, plants have lost root structure and the ability to interact with organic matter symbiotically. Unsuitable application of nitrogen and unsustainable usage of carbon has disrupted the Carbon-Nitrogen cycle.
Soil structure - Structure of soil is disrupted leading to low biological & hydrological function.
Market for carbon conscious practices - There is no market to recognize carbon-conscious practices/products and hence no farm outcomes are incentivised/articulated in terms of carbon rotated/fixed.

WHO SHOULD APPLY?

Innovators and start-ups with solutions that can enable just and equitable transition in the state of Jharkhand through solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation.
Market Ready – Innovators and start-ups with solutions at TRL 7+