Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Oorja owns, operates and maintains decentralised solar infrastructure at the farm level and sells irrigation, milling and cooling services to smallholder farmers who earn less than $100 per month. The company has pioneered an inclusive and customer-centric Pay-Per-Use business model to deliver critical farming services to smallholder farmers on a pay-per-use basis, without any upfront technology acquisition cost. All services are sold at affordable tariffs that are up to 60% cheaper than diesel alternatives. Users pay only according to the amount of water pumped, the weight of produce milled or stored. Oorja also takes care of the maintenance of its solar assets and equipment - eliminating the cost of repairs and maintenance for end users. Due to the on-farm and near-farm availability of the services, users also save on transportation and other logistical expenses. Oorja also provides climate-smart farm advisory to enable farmers to boost crop yields, reduce carbon emissions, become energy independent, alleviate poverty and build climate resilience. With regular training, farmers are now able to engage in new growing seasons, diversify their cropping patterns beyond staple crops, grow high-value crops, reduce chemical input consumption and use water judiciously. 

Oorja’s Pay-Per-Use model effectively bridges the investment gap for agri-energy infrastructure by turning farming needs into services. This effective servitisation of decentralised solar-powered productive energy has allowed the poorest farmers to access ‘productive use’ appliances - making clean energy accessible, affordable, reliable and convenient.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Oorja reduces GHG emissions by deploying energy-efficient, sustainable and decentralised solar energy infrastructure. By replacing diesel along the agricultural value chain with affordable solar-powered farming services, we have avoided 1,600+ tons of CO2e emissions. We recoded a reduction in consumption of chemical inputs by 20-30% and fossil fuel use by 95% among our customers.

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Oorja targets people of color in India from historically discriminated groups based on their intersectional identities (caste, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender). We focus on low-income rural communities in the poorest states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. 80% of our customers are Dalits/OBC community members who endure persistent poverty, discrimination and deprivation in access to public services, housing and schools (equivalent to racial discrimination in the US). They are farmers owning less than 1.5 acres of land and earn $100 per month per household. They rely on the costliest energy sources and lack access to agricultural knowledge. Oorja also integrates women along the entire value chain of its operations as customers, employees, and trains women farmers on sustainable agricultural practices to have agency in their community and uplift their economic well-being.

Oorja‚ CaaS projects have so far provided 190 end-users and 1,100+ beneficiaries with affordable low-carbon refrigeration facilities for their perishable produce. They have seen a 10% to 30% rise in the average selling price of the crops in storage, and have been able to extend produce shelf life, offer higher quality produce and sell at optimal times for better prices.

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Mission Statement:

Oorja is a Farming-as-a-Service company working at the intersection of clean energy and sustainable agriculture. Oorja's vision is to create economic opportunity, improve standard of living and combat the climate emergency in rural agrarian communities. Its mission is to deliver access to clean, reliable and affordable energy for productive use to power income-generating appliances in off-grid and severely under-electrified BoP communities in emerging markets, with a current focus on rural India. 

Oorja installs, operates and maintains decentralized solar infrastructure and uses it to provide affordable and reliable solar-powered farming services of irrigation, milling and cooling. All services are sold on a Pay Per Use basis, removing the upfront cost barrier for technology acquisition for low-income users. Oorja has operations in seven districts of India in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states, India.

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