Contribution short abstract

Utility-scale solar PV developments in Western Rajasthan, India are riddled with serious socio-ecological implications: fostering land-conflicts & disruption in rural livelihoods. With empirical work in Rajasthan, I explore the emancipatory potential of alternatives- agrivoltaics and RE cooperatives

Contribution long abstract

Utility-scale solar PV projects in Western Rajasthan, particularly the districts of Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Jodhpur, and Barmer, have been marked by a wide range of socio-ecological harms, inter alia: the loss of common pastures and Orans (vegetation-rich, culturally sacred, community-protected lands); the dispossession of communities dependent on government owned land; the erosion of agro-pastoral livelihoods; the encroachment of water-catchment areas and intensified competition over already scarce water resources; the destruction of habitats for local fauna and epistemic violence against place-based ways of knowing and being. These negative socio-ecological implications of utility-scale solar PV projects are spearheaded by a range of political-economic factors. There has been substantial scholarly work on the policy, legal, social, and onto-epistemological challenges surrounding the rapid roll-out of solar PV in Rajasthan. However, much of the empirical work has focused solely on one district – Jaisalmer and the literature fails to offer alternative imaginaries of renewable energy development in the region. Drawing on empirical fieldwork, involving interviews, focused group discussions and participatory envisioning, in Western Rajasthan and existing scholarship, I explore community-based alternatives to large-scale solar energy developments. Specifically, asking What alternative energy futures do communities in Western Rajasthan imagine? and What potential and challenges do alternatives - such as agrivoltaics, decentralised ownership models, and renewable energy cooperatives - offer in this context?