Low-cost Lamps Brighten the Future of Rural India

Khadakwadi, India:

Until just three months ago, life in this humble village without electricity would come to a grinding halt after sunset. Inside his mud-and-clay home, Ganpat Jadhav's three children used to study in the dim, smoky glow of a kerosene lamp. And when their monthly fuel quota of four liters dried up in just a fortnight, they had to strain their eyes using the light from a cooking fire.

That all changed with the installation of low-cost, energy-efficient lamps that are powered entirely by the sun. The GSBF lamps use LEDs - light emitting diodes - that are four times more efficient than an incandescent bulb. After a $55 installation cost, solar energy lights the lamp free of charge.

I read the first few paragraphs of this article and thought to myself, "Now there's an organization that knows how to apply technology and actually solve problems." Wouldn't you know it - they're a branch of the Grameen Bank:

"Children can now study at night, elders can manage their chores better," says Mr. Jadhav. "Life doesn't halt anymore when darkness falls."
The innovative lights were installed by the Grameen Surya Bijli Foundation (GSBF), a Bombay-based nongovernmental organization focused on bringing light to rural India. Some 100,000 Indian villages do not yet have electricity. LED lighting, like cellphones, is another example of a technology whose low cost could allow the rural poor to leapfrog into the 21st century.

Posted by flow Frazao on January 3, 2006 at 11:34 AM in Cool Stuff, Microfinancing, Web/Tech | Permalink