CTx GreEn is a non-profit organization that partners with grass-root organizations and field-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world to research, assess, facilitate, and implement community based renewable energy projects. These projects are bottom-up solutions designed and developed, with the local community, to be managed in future entirely by the community supported by the local organization.
CTx GreEn: Community-based Technologies Exchange fostering Green Energy Partnerships
CTx GreEn is currently working in India in partnership with Gram Vikas, a local NGO with 27 years experience in working in remotes areas in the state of Orissa in India. The CTx GreEn-Gram Vikas partnership was formed to implement a biodiesel based alternate energy solution for water-pumping in remote non-electrified villages of Orissa. The biodiesel based system provides running water for drinking and in the washrooms being built as a part of Gram Vikas’ Rural Health and Environment Programme (RHEP).
The CTx GreEn approach is to find a local solution which begins with a detailed assessment of the local natural resources and the development of an energy plan with the community based on their current and future energy needs. The technology development is also a participatory process involving the future technology users from the very beginning and incorporating continuous training. Village level community structures to manage the technology are then developed with the assistance of the local NGO and systems put in place for monitoring both the technology and the natural resource base through training of the identified community groups.
CTx GreEn also works with the local NGO to liaison with the government for relevant policy level changes to reinforce the technology. The diagram below represents the CTx GreEn methodology of community-based technologies exchange, where technology is only one of five important components of the technology adoption process.
