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The 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
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A Light Bulb Goes On: A Major Innovation in Asset Finance: M-KOPA’s model could illuminate other sectors
The creators of M-KOPA , which sells solar base stations that can charge phones, power lights, and other limited applications, has come up with one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen in the mobile money space in some time.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Tags
- solar
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How to Light Africa Within a Decade
Today, when the sun goes down in Africa, over 150 million homes will not turn on the lights. The reason is simple: they don’t have electricity. Instead, they will extend their day by the dim light of kerosene lamps. Families will huddle around these lamps, inhaling the lung-burning equivalent of two packs of cigarettes each from kerosene fumes.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Panasonic lanterns ‘to regain market’
Osaka, Dec 10 (bdnews24.com) – Electronics giant Panasonic will launch solar lanterns for un-electrified areas in developing countries by early next year as it shifts its businesses to eco-technologies to bring back the losing markets by 2018, its 100th anniversary.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Region
- South Asia
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From NYC To Nairobi: Interview With SunCulture, Audience Choice Award Winners 2011-12
All entrepreneurs are inherently risk-takers, but some are willing to go above and beyond for an idea they believe in. NYU Stern alumnus Samir Ibrahim and serial entrepreneur Charles Nichols, winners of the Audience Choice Award at the 2011-12 Entrepreneur’s Challenge fit this description perfectly. The two recently packed their bags and moved to Kenya, where their start-up SunCulture sells solar-powered irrigation products and agricultural services to local farmers.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- solar
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Solar Energy Brings Power to Rural India
In Central India, far from the grid of power lines, telephone poles and power transformers an electrical experiment has been taking place. For the last year, the village of Meerwada has been learning to live with solar energy. Located some 90 minutes from the nearest city by way of a rocky 4×4 dirt road, this small town sits on the cutting edge of a modern-day industrial revolution.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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Ecobank, IHS seal $202m deal for mobile network in Cameroun, Côte d’Ivoire
THE investment profile of the pan-African bank, Ecobank Group, may have risen with the signing of a syndicated loan facility with IHS Holding Limited, for the mobile tower investment and solar energy projects in Cameroun and Côte d’Ivoire.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Enter the iShack, a possible answer to improving Africa’s slums
For those who aren’t familiar with South Africa’s informal settlements, it is estimated that seven million South Africans live in shacks in the country’s many “squatter camps” located around all major cities.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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