UrJar: A device to address energy poverty using E-waste

Abstract

A significant portion of the population in India does not have access to reliable electricity. At the same time, is a rapid penetration of Lithium Ion battery-operated devices such as laptops, both in the developing and developed world. This generates a significant amount of electronic waste (e-waste), especially in the form of discarded Lithium Ion batteries. In this work, we present UrJar, a device which uses re-usable Lithium Ion cells from discarded laptop battery packs to power low energy DC devices. We describe the construction of the device followed by findings from field deployment studies in India. The participants appreciated the long duration of backup power provided by the device to meet their lighting requirements. Through our work, we show that UrJar has the potential to channel e-waste towards the alleviation of energy poverty, thus simultaneously providing a sustainable solution for both problems. Mode details of this work are provide in [3].