Indian project shows solar power affordable
Correspondents in Oslo
30 April 2007
A solar power project in India supplying electricity to 100,000 people will be widened to other developing nations after showing that clean energy can be cheaper than fossil fuels, a UN report says. The $US1.5 million UN-backed project would be extended to several other nations to help people in rural areas break dependence on kerosene lamps or unreliable grid-supplied electricity.
Under the project, the number of Solar Home Systems financed in the pilot area of Karnataka state, southern India, has risen to 18,000 - providing power for an estimated 100,000 people - from 1400 in four years.
The systems provide a few hours of daily power for light bulbs in homes or shops or to run a radio, a fan or a television. Electric light lets people read more easily than by a dim kerosene lamp.
The lighting "has been credited with better grades for schoolchildren, better productivity for cottage-based industries such as needlework artisans, and even better sales at fruit stands, where produce is no longer spoiled by fumes from kerosene lamps", a UN statement said.
The project may also help to lift rural families from poverty, a goal for 2015 set by world governments in 2000.
Indian banks have also helped families to fund purchases of the solar systems, costing $US300 to $US500. Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank were initial backers and the Bank of Maharashtra and Sewa Bank joined the scheme in 2007. The UN subsidy, phased out over time, helped cut initial interest rate payments.
"The India program's success has already inspired a sister effort in Tunisia," a UN statement said. "Similar programs are upcoming for China, Indonesia, Egypt, Mexico, Ghana, Morocco and Algeria."
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