A good-news story from a Bihar village is now being celebrated in a US university.

Manoj Sinha and Charles ‘Chip’ Ransler, students at University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, along with partner Gyanesh Pandey, started a project that provides low-cost electricity to two villages in Bettiah by burning the rice husk.

Last week, Sinha and Ransler received $50,000 and a big vote of confidence in their business plan when they won the Social Innovation Competition at the University of Texas. The University of Texas’ RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service awarded the prize to their business, Husk Power Systems (huskpowersystems.com), which uses a proprietary technology to burn rice husk and generates electricity and waste ash that can be sold as an ingredient for cement, and ensures a reduction in carbon emissions.

So far, two rice husk generators are providing power to two villages but the business plan calls for a rapid expansion that will put the miniature power plants in hundreds of villages within a few years, says Sinha, who along with his partners are scouting for investment to expand their project.

This technology provides off-grid power to villages of 200 to 500 households. Using the husk-powered mini power plant, the team plans to offset close to 200 tonnes of carbon emissions per village, per year, in India. The competition’s audience handed Husk Power Systems an additional $1,000 in the vote for the People’s Choice award.

Selecting from a competitive field of exceptional ideas, the judges, who included University of Texas faculty, non-profit directors, foundation grant makers and business leaders, chose three finalist teams. “The final pitch to the judges had all the drama and emotion of a night on American Idol—but with a much loftier mission,” said Peter Frumkin, director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service.

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