Energy from solar, biomass and hydrogen is coming together for the first time in India to light up a tribal hamlet. PHOTO: The Telegraph

When India’s Rabindranath Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913, he made headlines. He continued to be in the news when he decided to use the prize money to set up a university town in India. Today, Santiniketan and its Visva-Bharati University can stake claim to their unique set of trailblazers of alumni; Nobel winning economist Amartya Sen and ace Indian auteur Satyajit Ray are among them. While the light of education draws thousands to the gates of the university town, its hinterland remains in darkness. But in education that leads to innovation we trust and there seems to be a glimmer of a sustainable solution on the horizon.

In a first in India, experts from the United Kingdom and top educational institutions in the country are working on a project to combine energy from solar and biomass resources and hydrogen to provide 24X7 electricity supply. The idea is to use solar power during the day and match it with biomass generation from local sources of organic material during the night. Hydrogen will be used during emergencies.

Read more here.