Husk Power System

1. Synopsis and Summary of Facts

Husk Power System (HPK) is a for profit social entrepreneurship venture which neither anticipates nor organizes to create substantial financial profit. Instead, the venture aims for value in the form of large scale, transformational benefits that accrues to the rural poor society of India (Exhibit#1). Founders are social entrepreneurs as they targeted an unfortunate but stable equilibrium that is lack of electricity which was hampering the lives of the rural people. Moreover, they identified an opportunity in this unjust equilibrium (desire of affordable of affordable electricity) and forged a new stable equilibrium that relapsed the trapped potential of the people in the rural areas.

Founders of HPS saw a market opportunity in the increasing demand for affordable and reliable sources of energy. The electrification of rural India had been extremely uneven, as the overall electrification rate in urban areas was 93%, while in the rural, it was 56%. People in rural areas with no electricity were paying high prices for kerosene for lanterns in households and diesel for generator using for irrigation and commercial purposes. Also, both these are destructive to the environment and health. The Electricity Act 2003 provided an additional driver for HPS. The government recognized it was economically impossible to reach villages via conventional grid based systems. The government knew that electricity in rural areas was essential for poverty alleviation and economic growth, therefore they encouraged generating power locally (off grid solutions) by exempting licenses for generation and distribution of electricity.

At the start, HPS experimented with power solutions such solar and wind but they were found to be financially unviable. Here the mission of the company aligned the founders to keep focus on affordable electricity. Eventually, HPS became first in the world to develop gasification power solution of 35-100KW capacity which was based on 100% rice husk. HPS won various international accolades and prize money which the company used it as an initial investment for starting their operations in India. The company takes rice husk (agriculture waste) which was otherwise left to rot and converts it into gas that powers the off grid power system. HPS caters to 5 villages depending upon the number of households.