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Premature Innovation: What happens when a social entrepreneur has a great business idea in a market that isn’t ready for it?
Mauricio Monjaras Cabañas founded GRIMA Biodiesel at the age of 21, a social enterprise that aimed to produce renewable fuel from castor beans. The fuel was touted as cheaper than diesel, better for the environment, and a boon to local farmers. But when he tried to launch his business, complications quickly set in. He discusses his struggles in this post, the latest in our series on social enterprise failures.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment
- Tags
- renewable energy
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Shell Foundation May Invest $75 Million in Clean Energy in India Over Next 5 Years
Shell Foundation, an independent charity set up by Anglo-Dutch energy group Shell, plans to allocate about half of its $150 million deployable funds in India's clean energy sector over the next five years, a top official said. The foundation may not invest the funds directly into projects but in for-profit companies or financial institutes, which will in turn invest in solutions to make cheap energy options accessible in rural and urban poor areas. "We want to take a marketbased approach where we can fund or forward grants to companies who are directly or indirectly providing the bottom of the pyramid with access to energy," said Pradeep Pursnani, deputy director-chief operating officer at Shell Foundation.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- South Asia
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This ‘Eco Stove’ Does More Than Cook Your Dinner
In Uganda, more than 28 million people in the country are without electricity. To put that into perspective, the entire population of the beautiful landlocked east-central African nation is less than 38 million people.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Press Release: U.S. Small Business Administration’s Impact Investment Fund Grows Threefold in Last 12 Months
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced today that the Impact Investment Fund of the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program has tripled in the last 12 months.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Technology
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MIT-USAID Program Releases Pioneering Evaluation of Solar Lanterns
When a person lives on less than $2 a day — as some 2.7 billion people around the world do — there isn’t room for a product like a solar lantern or a water filter to fail. It’s a challenge development agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and consumers themselves face every day: With so many products on the market, how do you choose the right one?
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment
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Schneider Electric Introduces Innovative Solar Street Lights
Schneider Electric has announced the introduction of a new range of innovative energy efficient maintenance-free Solar Streetlights popularly known as Villaya.
- Categories
- Energy
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Liter of Light Wins Zayed Future Energy Prize
Litre of Light, a project in partnership with PepsiCo that brings cost effective solar lighting solutions to communities in need while recycling plastic bottles, has been honoured as the winning entry in the Zayed Future Energy Prize Non-Profit Organization category.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
- Tags
- renewable energy, solar
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Institutional Investors Making Renewables Key Future Trend
Institutional investors are increasingly aligning their investments with energy technologies of the future, a new report claims.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
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