Inhabitants in "off grid" areas or those not served by any electrification programme have to live with more than one kind of darkness as the lack of electricity adds to problems of high poverty levels in these regions. The Centre for Development Finance (CDF) at IFMR, Chennai is working with Decentralised Energy Systems India (DESI) Power, an CSO to provide energy services in rural Bihar using biomass gasification technologies. DESI Power has developed a scheme called EmPower (Employment + Power) Partnership Programme that trains villagers to produce electricity using agricultural residue in biomass gassifiers. This project will install biomass power plants in rural villages and will be a boon for those areas that have been languishing in the dark for decades.

The project will work with farmers to ensure the availability of biomass and the cultivation of crops on wastelands that would serve as bio-diesel for the plant. It will work with local entrepreneurs to help them set up income generating activities (rice mills, pumping for irrigation and briquette production) that would maximise the use of this decentralised energy source.

A pilot project has already been successfully completed in Araria village in Bihar and the model is ready to be replicated across the country. ICICI Bank is in the process of finalising the financing and installation of these power plants. CDF will work with DESI Power to improve the efficiency and impact of this project. This project also won the World Bank's Development Marketplace 2006 Award where annually, 30 projects are selected and recognised for their contribution to improving the global environment.