Smaller, smarter. For remote regions, electricity does have to mean extending the grid. There may be a simpler way
Feb 11, 2008 
Categories: Bangladesh, Energy, Foreign Aid
Tags: Iqbal Quadir
This article delves into the innovative ways in which light and power are being supplied to previously un-serviced areas. These approaches represent a shift away from traditional centralized, resource-demanding, “extend the grid” solutions and toward environmentally-friendly, resource-recycling, “off-grid” alternatives.
Smaller, smarter For remote regions, electricity doesn't have to mean extending the grid. There may be a simpler way.
By Guy Chazan
The Wall Street Journal Asia
11 February 2008
In 2003, in his final year at Stanford Business School, Matt Scott was given an unusual
assignment.
He and his classmates were asked to come up with a safe alternative to the main
source of artificial light in the developing world -- lamps lit by kerosene, a relatively
cheap and widely available fuel, but also a major source of air pollution and accidental
fires.
The ensuing discussion changed Mr. Scott's life.
Before the year was out, he and three fellow students had set up a company to supply
low-cost light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to the poor of India. Their chief product: the
MightyLight -- a waterproof, portable lamp that runs on solar-powered batteries.
Today their company, New Delhi-based Cosmos Ignite Innovations Ltd., has
distributed 10,000 of the lights and is working on a solar-powered mobile-phone
charger.
Planners and policy makers have long pondered how best to supply light and power
to remote areas of developing countries, where some 1.6 billion people -- about a
quarter of the world's population -- still live without electricity. The usual solution is
to build out centralized power systems, or extend the grid. But such capital-intensive
projects present huge challenges for poorer nations, even when foreign aid is
involved.
Going 'Off-Grid'
New approaches are gaining favor that are inexpensive, safe and don't rely on big
utilities or their grids. Aid agencies, nonprofits, environmentalists and start-ups all are
involved in initiatives to promote "off-grid" power generation using renewable
resources and other environmentally friendly technology.
The United Nations Development Program, for one, is implementing 153 renewable-
energy projects around the world with funding totaling some $556 million. The
program has awarded $18 million in small grants of up to $50,000 to communities
operating about 820 small-scale renewable energy projects. These include solar-
powered water desalination in Mauritius; wind energy for water pumping in Egypt;
and micro-hydroelectric plants, harnessing the energy of nearby rivers, to electrify
homes and schools in the Dominican Republic.
Elsewhere, Western environmental groups are helping to create off-grid homes, often
with electricity generated by solar panels or wind turbines.
Private companies, meanwhile, are interested in the Third World as a potential market
for inexpensive, energy-efficient appliances such as solar-powered lights and hand-
crank radios. Some are teaming up with nonprofits and government agencies to get
their products in the hands of consumers. Cosmos Ignite, for example, charges $40
for its solar-powered MightyLights, which is more cash than most poor Indians
usually have on hand. A several-month supply of kerosene would cost about the
same, though, and Cosmos Ignite says its lights last for years. That's why nonprofit
microlenders and Indian government agencies are stepping in to help with such
purchases.
Emergence BioEnergy Inc., a Lexington, Massachusetts-based start-up, has
partnered with Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, a large non-
governmental organization, to supply electricity to poor areas in a program
that also involves microlending. At the heart of its effort: a small external
combustion engine that can accept a variety of fuel sources, including methane
harnessed from cow manure -- a resource widely available throughout the rural
areas of Bangladesh and other poor countries.
"We are addressing a widespread, but unmet, need with an underutilized,
widespread resource," says the company's founder, Iqbal Quadir, who heads
the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. The combustion engines generate not only electricity
to power lights and televisions, but heat as a byproduct. Villagers in a tropical
country like Bangladesh don't need to warm their homes but they can use the
heat to dehydrate vegetables and fruit. The effort is being field tested in 12
villages. Mr. Quadir, who helped bring cellphones to Bangladesh by launching
GrameenPhone Ltd. in 1997 with Norway's Telenor ASA and microcredit
pioneer Grameen Bank, aims to expand the power-generation program to poor
countries throughout South Asia and Africa.
Light and Power
In the Philippines, the U.S. Agency for International Development has spearheaded a
drive since 2001 to use solar cells and micro-hydro power to electrify hundreds of
remote rural communities on the conflict-wracked island of Mindanao. So far, the
Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy, or AMORE, has electrified 413
villages, 320 community centers, 145 schools, and installed 319 streetlights. USAID
says the group plans to light up 520 villages by 2009.
Fighting between Philippine forces and Muslim militant groups, including the Al
Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, for years stymied government efforts to expand the island's
electric grid to large areas. At the same time, the widespread darkness gave the
militants more room in which to maneuver.
"Kerosene was hard to get, so the villages weren't lighted at night," says Calista
Downey, the officer of USAID's Philippine desk. "Abu Sayyaf and other rebel groups
moved about in the darkness. Lighted areas were always safer."
Electricity also has given the local economy a big shot in the arm. Fishermen now
have a few more hours of light in which to mend their nets. Markets stay open longer.
Children have more light to do their homework. And security has improved. "Perhaps
more important than having light, when the villages see their life improving, they're
less likely to give refuge to insurgents," Ms. Downey says.
AMORE, which comprises USAID, the Philippine government, the Atlanta-based
power company Mirant Corp., and local authorities, trains locals to operate the
power-generating systems. The locals decide who gets to use the power.
Initiatives such as AMORE are getting a boost from the big advances now under way
in the production of solar-, wind- and hydro-power technology. "The prices for [solar-
energy's] photovoltaic cells and wind turbines keep coming down," says Gordon
Weynand, a USAID expert on renewable energy who is based in Washington, D.C.
That's also the case with LED technology. While LED products still cost more to
produce than conventional lighting, they last longer, produce more light and use very
little energy. Long used in automobile rear-window, brake lights, and in the infrared
beams of television remote controls, LEDs now are so powerful they can now be
used to create ambient lighting for a whole room, like the lights Cosmos Ignite makes.
Mr. Scott, who now lives in London, and who teamed up with Indian entrepreneur
Amir Chugh to form Cosmos Ignite, says the company's MightyLight LED lamp is
now three to four times brighter than it was four years ago. "Most other lighting
technologies are static, but LEDs will continue to improve," he says. That's made a
big difference to his business model. "We can now offer more light for the same
wattage," he says.
In addition to running on solar power, LEDs can be recharged using hand cranks or
pedal power. Freeplay Energy PLC, a London-based company, pioneered a radio
operated with a hand crank that has sold well throughout Africa, and it is now
applying the same technology to a range of LED lights for the poor.
There are many small, high-tech start-ups working on the technology, says Russell
Sturm, leader of the Sustainable Energy Team at International Finance Corp., the
World Bank's private-sector lending arm. "Refugees from the dot-com bust," he calls
them.
Some of the biggest names in the lighting business are getting interested in this
market, too, such as Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands. In 2005, Philips
launched a pilot project in India aimed at bringing affordable, energy-efficient lighting
to the poor, using rechargeable, portable lanterns and hand-cranked LED flashlights.
Company spokeswoman Santa van der Laarse adds that Philips expects the falling
cost of producing LEDs to make such products increasingly affordable for Third
World customers over the next few years.
The IFC is increasingly interested in this market as well. It sees its mission as helping
to disseminate such products in the developing world by educating consumers and
helping the companies stitch together supply chains. Last year it unveiled its Lighting
Africa initiative, a plan to help provide inexpensive, safe and clean lighting to 250
million people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. As part of that initiative, it launched a
competition to design low-cost, environmentally friendly lighting products tailored to
the local market: Some 500 lighting companies, suppliers and distributors have
expressed an interest, Mr. Sturm says, including big names like Philips, and smaller
operators like Cosmos Ignite, too.
The biggest enemy of off-grid technologies, meanwhile, could be their rapid success.
Rising demand is leading to serious shortages of equipment. "It's rare that you can get
photovoltaic cells off the shelf, and on wind turbines you're sometimes looking at a
year's wait," says USAID's Mr. Weynand. "It affects all the donors. You have to get in
the queue like everyone else."
-- Leslie Scism contributed to this article.
