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Solar panels powering a rural cultural and drama centre, near Auroreville, Pondicherri. (Photo credit: Martin Wright)

Aurore is a community-owned enterprise based at Auroville, near Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu, India. Over the past six years it has facilitated the installation across India of nearly 2 MWp of photovoltaic (PV) systems, including 845 PV-powered water pumps, 8,700 domestic PV systems, and over 6,000 PV-powered lanterns.

Aurore focuses on ‘solar entrepreneurs’ – seeding businesses which can become self-sustaining, whether it’s hiring out solar lanterns to market traders, so replacing dirty and expensive kerosene lamps, or supplying and installing solar water pumps to farms.

Aurore has concentrated on identifying and tackling the obstacles to widespread solar power. It uses its purchasing power to obtain bulk discounts, and works with micro-credit institutions to draw up special finance deals. Through such methods, Aurore is seeding a whole chain of ‘local energy entrepreneurs’ – effectively providing the managerial, technical and financial back-up for new small businesses supplying solar energy.