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Solar Passive Technology
Spiti being a Trans-Himalayan cold desert witnesses 6 month long winters where the temperatures fall down to as low as -30 degrees centigrade. Moreover, due to its high altitude (the average altitude is 4500 mts asl) and extreme winter climate, vegetation, especially trees cannot grow or survive. Therefore, during the winter the inhabitants of Spiti burn coal, wood, dung and other bushes to cook and warm their houses.
Due to the long winters, the summers are a very busy time as the Spiti people have to earn the major part of their livelihood from activities such as agriculture, daily wage labour, etc during the short summer months. Apart from generating their livelihoods during this time, the women also need to devote a significant part of their summer and autumn labour (between 2 to 4 hours a day) to collect the 4 to 5 tons of fuel wood required to warm the house during the winter months. The burning of fuel wood also generates a lot of smoke that is emitted by the combustion of dung in energy inefficient and poor quality stoves. As the rooms are not well ventilated due to the extreme cold temperatures, the ambient air is very smoky and is an irritant for the eyes and leads to lung disease in the long run. Finally, shortage of fuel (bush and dung) and the high price of imported conventional fuel results in a situation of energy vulnerability.
Although Spiti is extremely cold in the winters, it has an abundance of sunny days. Simple solar technologies, based on passive solar concepts with the usage of local material, are being used as tools to create new economical avenues for the local populace during the winters. For instance, greenhouses, poultry farming, handicraft development and solar dryers for fruit processing are some of these activities. The same technology is also being used to reduce the consumption of fuel wood in the winters thus contributing in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
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