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These Hilarious Inflated Backpacks Are Actually Delivering Cheap Local Energy To The Rural Poor
Millions of rural villagers around the world still cook with wood and charcoal, with all the limitations and inconveniences that implies. Women spend time and energy collecting and hauling wood, which contributes to deforestation and takes them away from more productive uses of their time. Worse, burning wood and charcoal inside homes produces extremely unhealthy fumes.Biogas produced from organic waste, such as cow dung and farm cuttings is a good alternative, because it's lightweight and clean burning. But it's not possible to have a bio-digester—a system for breaking down the waste to produce biogas—in every person's home. That's too expensive and impractical. You need upwards of five or six households invested in a digester to cover its costs.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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5 Success Factors for Technology Distribution and Adoption in the Last Mile
How can innovative technologies be distributed and adopted at scale in the last mile? This is a key question driving social enterprises and nonprofits aiming to leverage the power of innovative products designed for the poor. Kopernik, a nonprofit headquartered in Indonesia, has consolidated its observations into five key factors – factors that Project Manager Tomohiro Hamakwa hopes will be useful for other enterprises hoping to make market inroads.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Banyan Green raises Rs 1 crore from I3N, other angels
Banyan Green Fuels, a startup that develops customised biofuels for clients, has raised Rs 1 crore from Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N) and other angel investors.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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Seven Breakthroughs That Will Transform Global Health
Which major breakthroughs in technology have had a transformative effect on the lives of the world’s poorest? Vaccines for polio and other serious diseases; HIV anti-retrovirals; mosquito bed-nets with powerful insecticide infused into its fabric. All have transformed lives by dramatically reducing disease.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care
- Tags
- solar
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SunEdison, IFC, OFID, and CABEI Close $146M Financing for Solar PV Projects in Honduras Totaling 81.7 MW
SunEdison Inc. (Belmont, CA, US) on December 15th, 2014 announced the closing of an approximately USD 146 million non-recourse debt financing arrangement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID).
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Rwanda: Phone Charging Made Simple
Rwanda's Henri Nyakarundi founded African Renewable Energy Distributor (ARED) to give renewable energy solutions to the public and private sectors in his home country Rwanda after failing to find a place to charge his phone from. However, he never imagined that his idea would ever cross the border.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Weekly Roundup – 12-14-13: Is wishful thinking sustaining or stopping global development?
In this week’s roundup, a $64 million (plus) year for off-grid solar investments in developing markets, the inspirational story behind Doorways to Dreams, and The New Republic essay that wants to put an end to wishful (scalable) thinking in development.
- Categories
- Energy
- Tags
- impact investing, savings, solar
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Off-Grid Solar Companies Closed $64M in 2014: The Start of a Bigger Trend?
Early-stage investments in off-grid solar companies operating in developing countries reached $63.9 million in 2014, according to a tally from Greentech Media.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment