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with G24i's Solar Technology

13 September 2010

A 2009 United Nations report claims 1.5 billion people live without electricity globally, the majority of which live in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. A staggering number that highlights how essential energy is to ending global poverty.

What is often missed in energy/poverty commentary, however, is the environmental impact of areas unable to acquire energy for themselves. People in these areas often rely on fuels like kerosene -- a highly volatile pollutant that kills 1.6 million people each year -- or go through inordinate amounts of batteries (and no, there are not proper recycling programs available).

So the importance of clean energy is obvious, as is the need to elevate peoples' lives. And solar has this ability -- if it can be properly funded.

Enter companies like Rural Energy Foundation (REF), a Dutch non-profit organization, and its continuing efforts to enable sub-Saharan African communities to raise their quality of living.

Winner of the 2010 Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy [pdf] and the 2010 Sustainable Energy Europe Award 2010 [pdf], REF facilitates offer access to renewable energy for hundreds of thousands of rural people in sub-Saharan Africa.

REF does this through a comprehensive supply chain which allows it to train technicians, create supply and demand, and enable access to loans for larger projects.

"Lack of access to energy -- just as lack of clean drinking water -- is a cause of poverty, not just a result of poverty," says Willem Nolens, director of REF.

"Gaining access to electricity can be really life-changing. People can increase their productivity, children can study, read books and watch television, which allows them to be connected to the world.

It also enables villages to install irrigation systems for their crops. "Whole villages can become self-sufficient once someone has a home solar system," says Nolen.

Other companies working in a similar fashion to REF are D.Light, also an Ashdan Award winner, and Nokero -- a company claiming to have made the world's first -- and only -- solar light bulb.

It's organizations like these that add a much-needed human face to renewable energy, one that says intrinsic, necessary reasons for change are not just bound by scientific debate.