Lithium ion batteries charge up rural houses1

Moving from old lead-acid battery technology to lithium-ion batteries has enabled companies such as Kaho India Private Limited to help the center achieve its rural electrified targets, even in areas not accessible to the grid.
Kaho India Private Limited was established in 2012 to provide the last-
With a compact solar module, Mile Energy can enter areas that have not been connected to the grid so far.
\"In Chhattisgarh, for example, there are all kinds of tribal areas that do not have electricity and the grid may not be able to get there in the next 10 years because even roads cannot be built there due to the high intensity of LWE (
Left-wing extremism)
Subhag Jain, CEO of Kaho India Private Limited, told Hinduism.
The device, developed by the company, can power three lights, one fan, one phone charger, and has a socket for DC-
Electric TV.
In addition to the TV, the company also offers all related electrical appliances.
The company initially developed a unit using lead-acid batteries, but found that the short life of these batteries made the entire product almost useless.
\"We first tried importing 10 units in 2012 and they were sold very quickly,\" he said . \"Jain said.
\"At that time, it was priced at £ 5.
But everyone complains that these systems don\'t work.
\"What we are shocked and excited about is that even though customers know they don\'t work, a £ 5 product is sold like a hot cake.
We then stopped all business activities and went into a wide range of R & D projects to understand why they didn\'t work and what we needed to do to get them to work reliably, he added.
\"It took two years to find the problem with the battery.
\"The problem is, sir.
Jain explained that while the life of the solar panels in the unit is 25 years, the life of the lead-acid battery is only 2-3 years.
\"The battery is 40% of the cost of the product,\" he said . \".
\"These people don\'t want to spend 40% of the cost every 2 minutes --
Replace the batteries for 3 years, which is why people think they don\'t work.
Subsequently, the company began to study other battery options and decided to use lithium-ion batteries.
\"This has solved a lot of problems for customers and many government plans,\" he said . \".
\"In lead-acid batteries, the typical calculation is that the peak power of the solar panel must reach 8 watts.
You need to do 4 in lithium ion.
8 watts per Peak Watt.
So, you have such a big benefit.
In a smaller package, we can put in more storage space, so it also becomes cheaper for the government.
Energy cost base
However, with the introduction of more efficient battery technology, the price of products has also increased.
However, this is not a big problem for the company because it decided to sell the product to the government rather than to individual families.
\"Now its price is £ 50 per unit . \"Jain said.
\"But the government is now buying them under the REC plan and the Saubhagya plan.
\"Another benefit of using lithium-ion batteries is that they are much lighter than lead-acid batteries, which is a key issue when transporting these devices to remote areas.
In addition, the charging time is reduced by half with the introduction.
\"It is said that the lead-acid battery is charged at the so-called c/10 rate, that is, it has to be charged for 10 hours,\" Mr. Jain said.
\"In lithium-ion batteries, there are technologies that can charge the battery in 10 minutes,\" he added . \".