Articles by Nancy Wimmer
-
Guest Articles
Thursday
June 15
2023How Innovation Created an Off-Grid Solar Market in Rural Bangladesh — And What Other Countries Can Learn from this Model
In the early 2000s, a small-scale World Bank pilot project in Bangladesh unexpectedly grew into the largest off-grid solar program in the world. According to Nancy Wimmer at microSOLAR, the program's success provided the rest of the world with a model for how low- and middle-income countries can develop a nationwide, rural market for decentralized solar systems driven by home-grown companies. She explores how other countries can adapt Bangladesh’s market-creating innovations to their own local environments.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
-
Guest Articles
Friday
July 12
2019‘The Marketmakers’ – How Rural Bangladesh Became a Model for Solar Enterprise
It took just a decade for more than 15 million villagers to gain access to the benefits of solar home systems in Bangladesh. How did this happen? Nancy Wimmer explains the process in her new book, "The Marketmakers — Solar for the Hinterland of Bangladesh." While Bangladesh's success would be difficult to replicate in other countries, Wimmer is convinced it is not solely determined by a country or product. Rather, she says it stems from a market-oriented approach carried out by rural entrepreneurs, as well as the leadership and resources to see it through.
- Categories
- Energy
-
Monday
December 17
2012The Next Million: Grameen Shakti – an innovative model for rural energy business
A small group of people began experimenting how to bring solar electricity to rural Bangladesh and in 1996 started its first rural renewable energy service company – Grameen Shakti – which literally translates to rural energy. The company installed 20 solar systems by the end of 1996, 2,800 systems after a decade of growth, and on Nov. 30, 2012 – 16 years after its launch – installed a total of 1 million solar systems in village homes, schools, clinics and businesses.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- renewable energy, scale, solar
