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Low-Cost Solar Brightens Lives in the Developing World
A decade ago, Katherine Lucey oversaw a heavily subsidized $1,500 solar-light installation in the rural district of Mpigi in central Uganda. The 60-watt rooftop solar panel system could power three lights in the four-room, off-the-grid house.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
- Tags
- solar
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Weekly Roundup: Extending Customer Credit – the Way to Scale?
This week we received the exciting news that VisonSpring has sold more than one million pairs affordable eyeglasses customers living at the Base of the Pyramid. But for every VisionSpring, surely there are countless other social startups that have failed to reach scale, and not necessarily because they are marketing an inferior product. It might be because their customers cannot reasonably afford to make a purchase, even one as “small” as $10. This is the need identified by Invested Development, which announced the creation of the Impact Factoring Fund, (IFF) that looks to provide short-term liquidity and working capital to early stage, high-growth companies in emerging markets.
- Categories
- Energy
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A Day at Husk Power University
Acumen Fund invested in Husk Power Systems (HPS) in 2010 to help scale their innovative business model of using discarded rice husks as a source for rural off-grid electricity generation. HPS has since expanded to over 90 plants all over Bihar, India, and has launched Husk Power University (HPU), a technical training institute for future mechanics and operators for HPS. I spent a day there.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Environment
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Will invest US $ 1 bn in India for inclusive growth and climate change: Karin Finkelston
A member of World Bank Group, International Finance Corporation (IFC) has chalked out its investment plans for India focusing mainly on the renewable energy sources and targeting the bottom of the pyramid. Karin Finkelston, vice president, Asia Pacific talks to Rutam Vora on IFC's investment plans in India during the current year. Edited excerpts:
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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The Energy Access Crunch: Exploring Public-Private Solutions for Getting Power to the People
The lack of energy access is a drag on human development around the world, and it will take an increase in funding as well as the public and private sectors working together to solve this problem. That was one of the conclusions at the workshop, “Fairness and Transparency in Climate Funding: Taking into account the Needs of the Poorest Populations” on May 11 in Bangkok.
- Categories
- Energy
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Lighting a Pathway for Solar in Rural Uganda
Mercy Corps didn’t give out a single solar lantern. It didn’t give out any grants to buy solar panels. But, what the international nonprofit did do was bring solar to rural Uganda.How? Market facilitation. It’s a mouthful, but it’s kind of like matchmaking, and it’s a key role nonprofits can play to boost local economies.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- solar, supply chains
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Achieving Sustainable Energy for All Hinges on International Cooperation and Leadership
This year was designated the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All by the UN General Assembly to raise awareness and promote the three objectives: clean energy access, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. 2012 is also the year of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, to be held in late June. The moment is ripe for action, and lofty goals have been set, but where to begin?
- Categories
- Energy, Environment
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Plug and Play: Energy Access at the BoP
In India, almost 290 million people lack access to electricity, according to the 2011 survey by the International Energy Agency. While people in the developed world have access to light with the simple flip of a switch, people in rural India and other parts of the developing world struggle at the base of the energy access ladder. Improving energy access for the bottom of the pyramid is a steep challenge – as the poor ascend this ladder, they move from using traditional fuels like wood and kerosene towards universal access –what most of the developed world takes for granted.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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