ABSTRACT

The concept of Sustainable Development relies heavily on judicious use of natural resources. This in other words means maintaining the fragile balance between the resource use and exploitation. But to strike the balance is rather a difficult task, threshold into consideration, for excessive demands are made on limited resources. The causes and effects of environmental problem arising from an imbalanced approach and inappropriate technology such as large hydro project are complex, interlocked and unmeasured. The impacts - frequently synergistic in nature could sometimes be irreversible. However, the only solution to these problems is to minimize the impacts: smaller the project, lesser the impact. This is where Micro Hydro Projects play an important role. They rarely cause any environmental damage. India is a developing country and Assam is one of the fastest growing cities in India. So, the need for an inexpensive source of power in Assam is very significant. Assam has about 87% of the States population living in rural areas. As per census of 2006, only 70% villages are electrified from which only 16.5% rural households are electrified. There are 2145 remote villages in the state which cannot be electrified through grid. Since these villages are non-feasible for grid power supply, for electrification of these villages, non-conventional and renewable energy is the appropriate solution. There is immense potential for development in non-conventional and renewable energy sector in Assam in respect of electrification of remote un-electrified villages by microhydel projects. The goal of this project is to design a micro hydral system inexpensive enough for use in rural parts of Assam which do not currently have power, but do have access to streams and small waterfalls such that an individual village could afford to generate electricity on their own without needing much from the government. The benefit of such a technologically, economically and financially viable venture goes a long way not only in liberating the people of the villages from 'darkness, but also in minimizing the negative impact upon the local environment.