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 in …
Vladimir Delagneau Barquero, Tecnosol – solar entrepreneur Read More »
Abdul-W. Raaj, CEO, Suka Energy West Africa Location: Tamale, Ghana “People often ask me why we do everything – in, Africa there is no niche in solar energy” In Ghana in the eighties, around 40 schoolchildren in one class would burn kerosene lanterns, to be able to keep on studying after dark. Lanterns, some burning …
Abdul-W. Raaj, Suka Energy West Africa – renewable energy entrepreneur Read More »
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 villages, …
Raghu Chandrasekaran, E-Hands Energy – rural energy entrepreneur Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative, jointly with the Academy of Sciences of Nicaragua (ACN) and the University of Central America (UCA), organised a national workshop in Matagalpa, Nicaragua on 27-28 April 2017 in order to explore the major challenges to, and opportunities for, achieving electricity access for rural and isolated communities to support productive processes and …
When disaster strikes, a community’s ability to respond and recover is tested, whether it is affected by a flood, an earthquake, a drought, a tsunami, or a hurricane, and whether it is located in a rural, urban, or peri-urban area. In this webinar, we’ll bring together experts who have worked in Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, and …
November webinar: Going off the grid: Disaster, resilience, and off-grid energy Read More »
70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas. Many of them rely on agriculture for their incomes. Equally, many of them lack access to energy. But what if they can access energy – and apply it to their livelihood? Within this webinar, we will hear from several speakers who are focusing on exactly this …
December webinar: Growing smart villages: Energy & agriculture for development Read More »
Providing the world’s poor with modern energy services represents an investment challenge. The United Nations Sustainable Energy For All (SE4All) initiative estimates that energy access in developing countries requires investments of US$ 45 billion annually by 2030 to step up to this challenge1. This means that the US$ 9 billion per year currently invested in …
Will private-sector finance support off-grid energy? Read More »
It is hard to talk about development in off-grid villages without talking about energy. Health, education, food security, productive enterprise and environmental well-being, as well as participatory democracy, can all be achieved if good policies are in place, but they depend not only on access to energy but on the provision of information. Sustainable and …
Energy policies for off-grid villages in Tanzania Read More »
Interview with Mike Rosenberg Founder, Aleutia Location: pan-Africa “I’m passionate about what I do. Passion is not optional”. Mike Rosenberg started his technology career in 2004 at Kelway, a leading UK IT reseller and was fascinated by the falling price of technology and opportunities for social impact in Africa. Given an opportunity to go to …
Aleutia: From solar classrooms in a box to Africa’s emerging middle class Read More »
Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), energy, and agriculture are topics of great importance to every rural community. In Southeast Asia, these issues overlap in many remote villages where lack of access to energy is often coupled with lack of access to clean drinking water or water for sanitation or agriculture. This report summarises the information …
Simon Bransfield-Garth, Chief Executive Officer Azuri Technologies Location: Pan-Africa “Go where nobody else has got to yet.” Simon Bransfield-Garth is on the cutting edge of the solar pay-as-you-go market for rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Founder of Azuri Technologies, Bransfield-Garth is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for technology. He has been named a World …
Azuri’s CEO anticipates continued growth in Africa, PAYG agriculture Read More »
In spite of much technological progress, many countries as well as communities within countries suffer from food insecurity; one in seven people in the developing world remains food insecure. Food security involves concurrent attention to availability, which is a function of production; access, which is a function of purchasing power; and absorption, which is a …
Energy provision and food security in off-grid villages Read More »
On average, 60% of the population across the 15 countries that comprise the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) is based in rural areas. Rural electrification rates in the region remain extremely low and estimates suggest that, for the region as a whole, only 19% of the rural population has access to electricity. Traditional …
[:en]Key Points: Off-grid technology can catalyse sustainable development for even the 1.1 billion without electricity in the remotest “last mile” communities Bottom-up approach key to achieving SDG7 Energy Access for All Goal Hub and spoke models combining hybrid mini-grids and solar home systems can provide starting point Governments need to create integrated off-grid and grid …
Access to energy, especially for rural communities, represents a central pillar of development. For the more than a billion people in the world without reliable access, the provision of electricity will have a huge impact on their livelihoods as it is crucial for human well-being and development. Without a reliable energy supply it is difficult …
Transforming rural communities through mini-grids Read More »
Two critically important and linked challenges face the global community in the 21st century: the persistence of widespread energy poverty and the resulting loss of economic opportunity; and intensifying human-driven climate disruption. These crises are inexorably linked through the energy technology systems that have so far provided the vast majority of our energy: fossil fuels. …
Worldwide, 1.3 billion people remain without access to electricity and 2.7 billion are still cooking on harmful and inefficient stoves1. Many live in remote rural village communities, and until they have access to energy services, little progress can be made to develop and improve their lives2. As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stated, “energy …
[:en]Co-authored by a science journalist and an energy researcher, WGSI’s OpenAccess Energy Brief is an engaging overview of energy access issues that identifies challenges, knowledge gaps and opportunities. This version incorporates feedback collected by our advisory group who met in October 2015 to evaluate version 1 of the Brief and Summit goals. This version of …
[:en]Smart Villages is pleased to announce the launch of the second annual Smart Villages Energy Innovation Challenge. Building on last year’s success, this year’s competition challenges aspiring young East African entrepreneurs to come up with an idea for a social business powered by off-grid energy. Social businesses deliver positive social impacts to the end user …
The Smart Villages Initiative together with its local partner, Practical Action Consulting South Asia, held a workshop in Dhaka on 26 August 2015 to consider the experience in Bangladesh of off-grid rural energy systems. This briefing note for policymakers and other stakeholders summarises key points emerging from the workshop.