 | |
| Type | Private charitable foundation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Energy Access for low income Communities, Education and Science for a Sustainable Economy |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Freiburg (Germany) |
| Website | www.canopusfund.org |
The Canopus Foundation is a registered private charitable institution under German jurisdiction founded in 1997 by Wolfgang Heller and Dr. Peter W. Heller.
Executive Director of the foundation is Dr. Peter W. Heller. other Members of the Board of Trustees are Dipl.Vw. Micaela Heller, Julia T. Rahmani, M.Sc.(LSE) and Jakob Heller, B.Sc. (Tübingen).
The foundation employs 2 permanent staff and 8 freelancers (status: 2019). Yearly operating expenses are 300.000 Euro.
The foundation is legally registered in Dreieich, Germany. The office is located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
Environmental protection, poverty alleviation, entrepreneurial commitment, education, and science
The Canopus Foundation is a private family foundation registered as a charitable organization under German law. It has been committed to rural electrification by renewable energies in developing countries for more than 20 years. Since 2014 Canopus has also been active in the field of education and science for a sustainable economy. Its work is based on the model of “Venture Philanthropy”.
Energy Access for All
1.1 billion people worldwide live without access to energy. Especially in developing and emerging countries the shortage of electrical power supply keeps large parts of the population from overcoming their poverty. Particularly in rural areas many qualified skilled workers and small-sized businesses have to forgo the use of electrical machines. They are limited in the goods they can produce, and denied economic development. To this day, much of the urgently needed food spoils in the heat because of the lack of refrigeration and conservation. Without energy for the cold storage of medication and vaccines, even basic health care is lacking. Without access to a power supply to light their huts and houses, charge batteries, or run electrical devices such as phones, radios, TVs, or fans, rural low income communities have no access to the simplest requirements for connecting to the “world”, taking up employment, or acquiring knowledge. Access to sustainable energy for all people: the Canopus Foundation has made it its mission to work on this challenge and provide people who are still forced to live without electricity with access to power from renewable energy sources, and thus give them new prospects for the future.
2000 - 2020 the Canopus Foundation has been supporting 51 social enterprises and non-profit organizations working in the energy access sector, and organized two international "Solar for All" contests to promote best practice solutions.
Education and Science for a Sustainable Economy
Since 2008 the economic sciences have faced a blatant crisis of legitimacy. Only a limited number of economists predicted the imminent crash of international financial markets, and retrospective analyses of the causes were in part contradictory. Ever since, the image of major economic research institutes has noticeably suffered. This loss of influence in the area of political advice and the additional loss of their legitimacy in the media and civil society has led to a defensive mood on the part of economists, leaving little space for critical self-reflection. Critics of the orthodox school are finding increasing sympathy in the public eye. They focus on the following points of criticism: the abstract model-type worlds of neoclassical equilibrium economics are applied to reality without taking the social environment into account, thus rendering sustainable economics inconceivable. Knowledge in the fields of social science and the humanities including economic history, scientific theory, and ethics turns into a marginal phenomenon of academia. This has led to a growing dysfunctionality where comprehensive interaction and an exchange of opinions would be urgently needed.
Since 2014 the Canopus Foundation has been a shareholder of the Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform (HVGP) gGmbH in Berlin; since 2015 it has been supporting the Cusanus University in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany. Both institutions are committed to supporting plural economics in their respective fields, in the organization of events, and in research and teaching.
As a family foundation Canopus pursues the venture philanthropy model [1] which transfers the method and tools of venture capital to the social sector, responding to its growing demand for advanced financial engineering. The foundation promotes the long term allocation of philanthropic risk capital to early stage social enterprises, laying the ground for financial self-sufficiency and the expansion of their social and ecological impact. Towards this end the Canopus Foundation provides additional technical expertise, management skills and market intelligence where needed. Since 2019 the Canopus Foundation is a member of the Association of German Foundations.
Ashoka (non-profit organization), Elea Foundation for Ethics in Globalization, Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform (HVGP)gGmbH, Cusanus University.
Renewable energy is useful energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, including carbon neutral sources like sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. The term often also encompasses biomass as well, whose carbon neutral status is under debate. This type of energy source stands in contrast to fossil fuels, which are being used far more quickly than they are being replenished.
Appropriate technology is a movement encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by locals, decentralized, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sound, and locally autonomous. It was originally articulated as intermediate technology by the economist Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his work Small Is Beautiful. Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as people-centered.
The International Energy Agency is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. The IEA was initially dedicated to responding to physical disruptions in the supply of oil, as well as serving as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors. It is best known for the publication of its annual World Energy Outlook.
Energy development is the field of activities focused on obtaining sources of energy from natural resources. These activities include production of conventional, alternative and renewable sources of energy, and for the recovery and reuse of energy that would otherwise be wasted. Energy conservation and efficiency measures reduce the demand for energy development, and can have benefits to society with improvements to environmental issues.
The energy industry is the totality of all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy industry is a crucial part of the infrastructure and maintenance of society in almost all countries.
Clean technology, in short cleantech, is any process, product, or service that reduces negative environmental impacts through significant energy efficiency improvements, the sustainable use of resources, or environmental protection activities. Clean technology includes a broad range of technology related to recycling, renewable energy, information technology, green transportation, electric motors, green chemistry, lighting, Greywater, and more. Environmental finance is a method by which new clean technology projects that have proven that they are "additional" or "beyond business as usual" can obtain financing through the generation of carbon credits. A project that is developed with concern for climate change mitigation is also known as a carbon project.
Energy poverty is lack of access to modern energy services. It refers to the situation of large numbers of people in developing countries and some people in developed countries whose well-being is negatively affected by very low consumption of energy, use of dirty or polluting fuels, and excessive time spent collecting fuel to meet basic needs. It is inversely related to access to modern energy services, although improving access is only one factor in efforts to reduce energy poverty. Energy poverty is distinct from fuel poverty, which focuses solely on the issue of affordability.
Renewable energy commercialization involves the deployment of three generations of renewable energy technologies dating back more than 100 years. First-generation technologies, which are already mature and economically competitive, include biomass, hydroelectricity, geothermal power and heat. Second-generation technologies are market-ready and are being deployed at the present time; they include solar heating, photovoltaics, wind power, solar thermal power stations, and modern forms of bioenergy. Third-generation technologies require continued R&D efforts in order to make large contributions on a global scale and include advanced biomass gasification, hot-dry-rock geothermal power, and ocean energy. As of 2012, renewable energy accounts for about half of new nameplate electrical capacity installed and costs are continuing to fall.
The developing nations of Africa are popular locations for the application of renewable energy technology. Currently, many nations already have small-scale solar, wind, and geothermal devices in operation providing energy to urban and rural populations. These types of energy production are especially useful in remote locations because of the excessive cost of transporting electricity from large-scale power plants. The applications of renewable energy technology has the potential to alleviate many of the problems that face Africans every day, especially if done in a sustainable manner that prioritizes human rights.
The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of profitable and non-profit ventures, established by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize winning founder of Grameen Bank. Most of these organizations have central offices at the Grameen Bank Complex in Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it started attending to unutilized or underutilized fishing ponds, as well as irrigation pumps like deep tubewells. In 1989, these diversified interests started growing into separate organizations, as the fisheries project became Grameen Fisheries Foundation and the irrigation project became Grameen Krishi Foundation.
Hermann Scheer was a Social Democrat member of the German Bundestag (parliament), President of Eurosolar and General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy. In 1999, Scheer was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for his "indefatigable work for the promotion of solar energy worldwide".
Hans-Josef Fell was a member of the German Parliamentary Group Alliance 90/ the Greens from 1998 to 2013. He served as spokesman on energy for the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group, a member of the Environmental Protection Committee, substitute member of the Committee on Economics and Technology and substitute member of the Defence Committee. Together with Hermann Scheer, he authored the 2000 draft of the Renewable Energy Sources Act, establishing the foundation for the technology developments in photovoltaic, biogas, wind power and geothermal energy in Germany. Fell is founder and president of the Energy Watch Group and an internationally renowned energy and climate change advisor, author and speaker.
DESERTEC is a large-scale project supported by a foundation of the same name and the consortium Dii created in Germany as a limited liability company (GmbH). The project aimed at creating a global renewable energy plan based on the concept of harnessing sustainable power from sites where renewable sources of energy are more abundant and transferring it through high-voltage direct current transmission to consumption centers. All kinds of renewable energy sources are envisioned, but the sun-rich deserts of the world play a special role.
The Lemelson Foundation is a private 501(c)(3) philanthropy founded in 1993 by Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife Dorothy.
Fábio Luiz de Oliveira Rosa is a Brazilian social entrepreneur whose initiatives have focused on rural electrification and the use of renewable energy sources.
Energy use and development in Africa varies widely across the continent, with some African countries exporting energy to neighbors or the global market, while others lack even basic infrastructures or systems to acquire energy. The World Bank has declared 32 of the 48 nations on the continent to be in an energy crisis. Energy development has not kept pace with rising demand in developing regions, placing a large strain on the continent's existing resources over the first decade of the new century. From 2001 to 2005, GDP for over half of the countries in Sub Saharan Africa rose by over 4.5% annually, while generation capacity grew at a rate of 1.2%.
Peter W. Heller ) is a former Deputy Mayor of the City of Freiburg im Breisgau/Germany, environmental scientist, and venture philanthropist.
Energy transition is a significant structural change in an energy system. Historically, these changes have been driven by the demand for and availability of different fuels. Energy transitions can also result from depletion of energy sources, for example whale oil for illumination and wood for iron smelting in Europe. The current transition to renewable energy, and perhaps other types of sustainable energy, differs as it is largely driven by a recognition that global carbon emissions must be brought to zero, and since fossil fuels are the largest single source of carbon emissions, the quantity of fossil fuels that can be produced is limited by the COP21 Paris Agreement of 2015 to keep global warming below 1.5 °C. In recent years, the term energy transition has been coined in the framework of a move towards sustainability through increased integration of renewable energy in the realm of daily life.
Sustainable Development Goal 7 is one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. It aims to "Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all." Access to energy is a very important pillar for the wellbeing of the people as well as economic development and poverty alleviation.
