Universal Energy

The United Nations estimates that an average of $35 billion-40 billion a year needs to be invested until 2030 so everyone on the planet will be able to cook, heat and light their premises, and have energy for productive uses such as schooling (The Economist). According to the International Energy Agency, the number of “energy poor” people will barely change, and by 2030 16% of the world will still have no electricity (The Economist). At the “Lighting Africa” conference in Nairobi in May, a World Bank project to encourage private-sector solutions for the poor, 50 lighting firms displayed their products, up from just a handful last year (The Economist). This shows a growing interest in bottom-up solutions and falling prices. Prices of solar cells have also fallen; the cost per kilowatt is half what it was a decade ago (The Economist). Solar cells can be used to power low-energy LEDs, which are energy-efficient and cheap; the cost of a set of LEDs to light a home has fallen by half in the past decade, and is now below $25 (The Economist). Richenda van Leeuwen of the Energy Access Initiative said at the UN Foundation in Washington, DC that this could eliminate kerosene light in the next ten years, which can have positive effects because families spend 30% of their income on kerosene and it causes indoor pollution and fires (The Economist).

Sam Goldman, the chief executive of D.light, pointed out that there is still a barrier
for the billions who cannot afford clean energy (The Economist). D. light has developed a range of solar-powered systems that can provide up to 12 hours of light after charging in sunlight for one day (The Economist). D.light’s most basic solar lantern costs $10;in order to be universally affordable the price would have to fall below $5 according to a International Finance Corporation study (TheEconomist). Much of the turmoil in bottom-up energy entrepreneurialism is focusing on South Asia; according to the International Energy Agency, 570m people in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, mostly in rural areas, have no access to electricity (The Economist). One idea is to use locally available biomass as a feedstock to generate power for a village-level “micro-grid”. Husk Power Systems, an Indian firm, uses second-world-war-era diesel generators fitted with biomass gasifiers that can use rice husks as a feedstock. Wires are strung on cheap, easy-to-repair bamboo poles to provide power to around 600 families for each generator (The Economist). Husk was co-founded three years ago by a local electrical engineer, Gyanesh Pandey and has established five mini-grids in Bihar, India’s poorest state, where rice is a staple crop (The Economist). Consumers pay door-to-door collectors upfront for power, and Husk collects a 30% government subsidy for construction costs.
Other companies are building off of ideas and expanding them. Emergence BioEnergy, for example, aims to provide many entrepreneurial opportunities around energy production (The Economist). Another project includes aiming to switch women in India from gathering wood, which denudes forests, to using canisters of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) (The Economist). India’s four state-owned regional power companies, including Bharat Petroleum Corporation, will build a national network of thousands of LPG-powered community kitchens (The Economist). Local entrepreneurs will then provide the LPG and charge villagers to use the kitchens in 15-minute increments (The Economist).

Some of the challenges faced are providing the upfront investment for energy schemes, and building and maintaining the necessary distribution systems to enable them to reach sufficient scale (The Economist). Many of these companies are privately funded and may need non- profit funding in the future. Another problem faced is distribution, specifically in Africa and South Asia where majority of the world’s “energy poor” reside (The Economist). Promotion and education/training groups must be supplied for those areas and they must also be paid for. The main issue is coming up with enough money for this to succeed. Once these solar companies have developed a valid plan, the push for universal energy can begin.

- Kelsey Tomlinson

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesbysubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=8780295&story_id=16909923&CFID=148417885&CFTOKEN=36741354