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

Links: The CTx GreEn Vision (.pdf) More Biodiesel Project Details A Biodiesel Story Publications and Articles Web Links Partnerships Maps of Orissa India

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).

Gram Vikas has a target of reaching 100,000 households by 2015 through the RHEP. While they have already covered 12,000 households since the inception of the program in 1992, they are hampered in their progress due to the non-availability of grid-electricity for water-pumping in over 90% of rural villages, many of which are the home of indigenous forest communities. CTx GreEn is working with Gram Vikas in these remote villages developing an energy solution based on local biomass resources, maximizing input into the local economy while providing the basic service of running water in homes.

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.

Component Programs of CTx GreEn

For more information on CTx GreEn, email Geeta or Ramani.