Author's posts
Oct 28 2017
Smart Villages News 150 – Local Championship and Rural Smartness
Letters to the editor We welcome submissions to this newsletter, including comment pieces from our readers. Join the conversation! Get in touch Dear Subscriber, Two things have caught our interest this edition. The first is the importance of local championship of energy access and rural development issues. So often we focus on reports, technical developments …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/smart-villages-news-150-local-championship-rural-smartness/
Oct 27 2017
Vidya Sagar Devabhaktuni, SKG Sangha – biogas entrepreneur
[:en] Vidya Sagar Devabhaktuni, President, SKG Sangha Location: Bangalore, India “Human beings are divided, but their basic problems are all the same” Having provided biogas solutions to over 10,000 villages since the mid-80s, Vidya Sagar Devabhaktuni has explored remote areas all over the world. For the president of SKG Sangha, exploring local cultures and …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-vidya-sagar-devabhaktuni-skg-sangha/
Oct 18 2017
Smart Villages News 149 – Off-grid energy – opportunities, resilience and realism
Letters to the editor We welcome submissions to this newsletter, including comment pieces from our readers. Join the conversation! Get in touch Dear Subscriber, As the Smart Villages initiative transitions into a new phase of activities, we’d like to welcome you to the first newsletter of our new fortnightly schedule. As ever, we welcome your …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/smart-villages-news-149-off-grid-energy-opportunities-resilience-realism/
Oct 18 2017
Smart Villages News 148 – Energy equality – now or never
Letters to the editor We welcome submissions to this newsletter, including comment pieces from our readers. Join the conversation! Get in touch Dear Subscriber, These past weeks, we’ve witnessed the destruction of hurricanes and flooding from South Asia to the Caribbean. As we all know, it will take not only days but weeks, months, and …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/smart-villages-news-148-energy-equality-now-never/
Oct 18 2017
Smart Villages News 147 – Never so relevant
Letters to the editor We welcome submissions to this newsletter, including comment pieces from our readers. Join the conversation! Get in touch Dear Subscriber, Increased resilience for communities has been one of the key dividends of off-grid energy we have confirmed during the first phase of the Smart Villages Initiative. Our workshops in Nepal, Philippines …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/smart-villages-news-147-never-relevant/
Oct 15 2017
Kopernik Indonesia – solving last mile problems
[:en] Sergina Loncle, Communications Manager, Kopernik Location: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia “The supply chain in Indonesia is a real challenge” On one of Indonesia’s 18,000 islands, Adonara in East Nusa Tenggara, crops such as copra – dried coconut flesh – are sold raw and unprocessed. Copra is usually left strewn on the ground, to dry in …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/sergina-loncle-kopernik/
Oct 15 2017
Nico Tyabji, SunFunder – solar entrepreneur
[:en] Nico Tyabji, Director of Strategic Partnerships, SunFunder Location: US, East Africa “As a financial intermediary for the off-grid solar sector, we’ve grown alongside companies” Since it launched as a specialist debt financier for the off-grid solar sector in 2012, SunFunder has improved energy access for 2.9 million people. Co-founders Ryan Levinson and Audrey Desiderato …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-nico-tyabji-sunfunder/
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-suleiman-mzungu-suja/
Oct 15 2017
Carlo Figa Talamanca, Sustainable Green Fuel Enterprise
[:en] Carlo Figa Talamanca, Chief Executive, Sustainable Green Fuel Enterprise Location: Phnomh Penh, Cambodia “We compete on industrialising the clean charcoal process” The other day, there was a fistfight on the factory floor. More worryingly, an employee’s child did not turn up at school. This is directly the responsibility of Sustainable Green Fuel Enterprise …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/carlo-figa-talamanca-sustainable-green-fuel-enterprise/
Oct 15 2017
David Achi, AD Solar Entreprise – minigrid entrepreneur
David Achi, Director, AD Solar Entreprise Location: Abidjan, Ivory Coast “Ivorians can now access life” Running a business in Ivory Coast is not easy, much less a solar company. David Achi trained over 1,000 technicians via a company he created in Reims – “the capital of champagne!” – in 2010. Achi also taught engineering at …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-david-achi-ad-solar-entreprise/
Oct 15 2017
Shyam Patra, Naturetech Infrastructure – solar entrepreneur
[:en] Shyam Patra, Founder and Director at Naturetech Infrastructure “We are ensuring that electricity is available and all the basic services are available. We don’t provide the electricity and then wait for the rest to happen.” The first time Shyam Patra visited India’s rural north, he was working for a traditional energy company and …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-shyam-patra-naturetech-infrastructure/
Oct 15 2017
Segun Adaju, Consistent Energy Limited – solar entrepreneur
[:en] Segun Adaju, CEO at Consistent Energy Limited “I think Nigeria has the biggest market for this kind of business in all of Sub-Saharan Africa.” To get a sense of Nigeria’s problems in the energy sector, it helps to know that more 60 million people in the country have their own gas-powered generators. In …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-segun-adaju-consistent-energy-limited/
Oct 14 2017
Mawuli Tse, Solar Light Africa – solar entrepreneur
[:en] Mawuli Tse, Director, Solar Light Africa Location: Accra, Ghana “Good technology migrates by itself” In the early nineties, Mawuli Tse spent time in Cape Verde, as part of a group working to install 5,000 photovoltaic systems in homes on the archipelago. “They were so progressive,” he says. “My thought was, if Cape Verde was …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-mawuli-tse-solar-light-africa/
Oct 14 2017
Richard Fahey, Liberian Energy Network (LEN) – solar entrepreneur
[:en] Richard Fahey, CEO, Liberian Energy Network (LEN) Location: Liberia “We give Liberians, be they fishermen or child soldiers, a powerful tool to do their job better” When a shipment of solar lights disappeared at the port of Hamburg en route from China, only to turn up three months later, every single battery dead. It …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-richard-fahey-liberian-energy-network-len/
Oct 14 2017
Jeroen Verschelling, Kamworks – solar home system entrepreneur
[:en] Jeroen Verschelling, Chairman and Co-founder, Kamworks Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia “It’s hard to go faster than the market” Jeroen Verschelling first designed his zero-energy home when he was a consultant for Ecofys, taking notes in the back of a conference room with experts on how to build homes in the tropics. Verschelling spent three …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-jeroen-verschelling-kamworks/
Oct 14 2017
Emal Barekzai, Zularistan – solar entrepreneur
[:en] Emal Barekzai, CEO, Zularistan Location: Kabul, Afghanistan “We worked in areas which were 100% Taliban” Emal Barekhzai came to Jalalabad in 2002. He was living in Kassel, Germany, and he found a two-month role working as an IT technician at a girl’s school there. Only 3% of girls were going to school in the …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-emal-barekzai-tecnosol/
Oct 14 2017
Vladimir Delagneau Barquero, Tecnosol – solar entrepreneur
[:en] Vladimir Delagneau Barquero, President and Managing Director, Tecnosol Location: Managua, Nicaragua “20 years ago, some Nicaraguans thought renewable energy was the work of the devil” When Vladimir Delagneau Barquero explains why he launched Tecnosol he brings the story back to an experience he had over a decade in the mid-eighties, during his military service …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-vladimir-delagneau-barquero-tecnosol/
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-abdul-w-raaj-suka-energy-west-africa/
Oct 14 2017
Raghu Chandrasekaran, E-Hands Energy – rural energy entrepreneur
[:en] Raghuraman (Raghu) Chandrasekaran, Founder E-Hands Energy Location: Chennai, India “Who cares for the poor anyway?” Along the Himalayan border of India, site of the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict, lie rural villages which Raghuraman Chandrasekaran has ventured into many times. The founder of E-Hands Energy, which brings hybrid solar and wind energy to rural Indian …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-raghuraman-raghu-chandrasekaran-e-hands-energy/
Oct 13 2017
Yonas Workie, Suntransfer Tech PLC – solar home system entrepreneur
[:en] Yonas Workie, Managing Director, Suntransfer Tech PLC Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia “You have to really find quality products in a market which can be unfair” Doing business in Ethiopia, which has a population of 100 million, has its challenges. 80% live in rural areas, and hydropower is the most popular energy source. Yonas Workie …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/interview-yonas-workie-suntransfer-tech-plc/