Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Let There Be Light

I found this article uplifting and so I thought I would share it.

A nice story about a remarkably industrious individual bringing solar panels to a remote village in India.

Apparently it was the first time many of the residents had seen artificial light after dark. The article speaks to the fact that this literally created several more hours each day in which these people live productively - working, studying or just socializing with family and friends.

The potential for solar (and wind power) is phenomenal on several levels and this article speaks to some of them.

At the same time, I wonder how this entrepreneur was financed. Solar power is not yet cheap on any scale that I am aware of (though wind is much cheaper)..... in other words, we can't exactly roll this out to all the un-powered villages in the world just yet (barring massive philanthropic efforts or some revolutionary business model).

Still, this article is inspiring. As the economics for these technologies become more favorable, the benefits for communities like this will be enormous. It seems hard to believe that efforts similar to this will not be an integral part of any eventual solutions to global poverty.

If you're interested, read the article here.

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