We wrote about Grameen Shakti back in 2003 and its mission to bring electricity to the poorest of the developing world in the most reliable and sustainable way.
Founded in 1996, Grameen Shakti is an offshoot of Grameen Bank, the pioneering micro-finance institution, which was established in 1976.
By 2002, Grameen Shakti had installed 11,000 PV sytems in homes, schools and businesses in Bangladesh. By the end of this year, it will have 1 million solar systems under its belt, with a goal of 5 million by 2015.
The nonprofit installs 1000 systems a day!
by Nancy Wimmer
In one of the poorest countries on the planet a renewable energy service company is installing one thousand solar home systems - a day. Not in its capital or busy urban centers, but where 80 percent of the population lives - in rural Bangladesh. The company, Grameen Shakti, literally translates as rural energy. By the end of the year it will have installed a total of one million solar systems and now has expansion plans to install five million systems by 2015. Shakti is succeeding where business as usual has failed, and in the year of Sustainable Energy for All, it's a success story we should all know by heart.
As in other developing countries, the rural market is incredibly tough to serve and villagers are very poor. So how is Grameen Shakti selling them 'expensive solar'?
Shakti solved part of the problem by tailoring a solar system to exactly what people like the traveling food vendor, Mr. Majid needed: a 25W solar system to light his grocery cart and power his cassette player. ..
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