Solar Power Brings Light to 100,000 Lives

A solar photovoltaics (PV) pilot project in India has transformed the lives of approximately 100,000 people living in poverty-stricken rural regions by providing several hours of uninterrupted lighting every night. The goal of the $1.5 million project, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), was to facilitate household financing for solar home systems. Its success has inspired satellite programs to improve energy access in Algeria, China, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, and Mexico.

In the absence of alternative energy options and plagued by day-long and sometimes, week-long blackouts due to unreliable local electricity grids, several rural areas in India have had to use polluting kerosene lamps and household stoves to meet lighting needs. According to UNEP, a single wick of kerosene can burn up to 80 liters of fuel, emitting more than 250 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year. In developing countries, 64 percent of deaths and 81 percent of lifelong disabilities from indoor pollution for children under the age of five is attributed to kerosene and other polluting fossil fuels. What is even more unfortunate, is that while kerosene and similar fuels amount to 20 percent of global lighting expenses, they supply only 0.1 percent of lighting energy services.
Approximately 45 percent of people in India are hooked up to a power grid and suffer daily power failures. Those without grid access must often hike long distances to buy a few liters of expensive kerosene, which, upon their arrival, can be no longer available since much of it is traded on the black market as an illegal way to dilute fuel and diesel. "Kerosene used by the poor for lighting is often unaffordable, unavailable, unsafe, and unhealthy, while the electricity power grid is unreliable," explained Timothy E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation. Speaking about the new solar project, he noted that, "To provide even this little degree of electricity reliability and independence is to empower the poor in ways that can profoundly alter lives for the better."
The largest barrier to the switch to solar power in developing countries with ample sunlight, has been the lack of good financing options for clean energy in poor communities. The poorest people of the world can often afford only highly polluting options such as kerosene that dibilitates their livelihoods often trapping them in a vicious cycle of poverty. With a program such as UNEP’s Solar Home Systems project, communities gain more ready access to financing, with the chance to pay more money upfront to acquire better, cleaner technologies that can save money in the long-term while improving their quality of life.
With the project, the number of financed solar home systems in the pilot region of Karnataka state in south India increased from 1,400 in 2003 to 18,000 today, providing power to approximately 100,000 people. The systems supply a few hours of continual power in homes or small shops to run small appliances and provide improved reading light. The UN states that, "the lighting has been credited with better grades for schoolchildren, better productivity for cottage-based industries such as needlework artisans and even better sales at fruit stands, where produce is no longer spoiled by fumes from kerosene lamps."
Poverty alleviation and the mainstreaming of renewable energy in rural areas are the likely long-term results of the project, along with the immediate improvement of rural livelihoods and reduced carbon dioxide emissions.