Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. Daylighting is sometimes used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings. This can save energy in place of using artificial lighting, which represents a major component of energy consumption in buildings. Proper lighting can enhance task performance, improve the appearance of an area, or have positive psychological effects on occupants.
Rural electrification is the process of bringing electrical power to rural and remote areas. Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity. As of 2019, 770 million people live without access to electricity – 10.2% of the global population. Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into obstacles in developing nations. Expanding the national grid is expensive and countries consistently lack the capital to grow their current infrastructure. Additionally, amortizing capital costs to reduce the unit cost of each hook-up is harder to do in lightly populated areas. If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development.
Sanjit "Bunker" Roy is an Indian social activist and educator who founded the Barefoot College. He was selected as one of Time 100's 100 most influential personalities in 2010 for his work in educating illiterate and semi literate rural Indians. Roy was awarded the Padma Shri by Giani Zail Singh in 1986.
The Grameen family of organizations has grown beyond Grameen Bank into a multi-faceted group of both commercial and non-profit ventures. It was first established by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank. Most of the organizations in the Grameen group have central offices at the Grameen Bank Complex in Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank started to diversify in the late 1980s when it began 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.
Barefoot College, previously known as the Social Work and Research Centre ("SWRC") is a voluntary organisation working in the fields of education, skill development, health, drinking water, women empowerment and electrification through solar power for the upliftment of rural people, which was founded by Bunker Roy in 1972. It is registered under Friends of Tilonia Inc.
A solar tuki is a rechargeable solar lighting system that is being implemented in Nepal to replace kerosene lamps commonly used by villagers. It includes two lamps that have white LED lights powered by an individual solar panel. In 2004, Engineers Anil Chitrakar and Babu Raj Shrestha collaborated with their respective organizations, Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness and Centre for Renewable Energy, to produce, distribute, and further the development of the solar tuki in Nepal. Their organizations sell the solar tuki systems, including solar panel, for $28 U.S. dollars, and the individual lamp is sold for $11.
The Lemelson Foundation is an American 501(c)(3) private foundation. It was started in 1993 by Jerome H. Lemelson and his wife Dorothy. The foundation held total net assets of US$444,124,049 at the end of 2020 and US$484,432,021 at the end of 2021.
Renewable energy in developing countries is an increasingly used alternative to fossil fuel energy, as these countries scale up their energy supplies and address energy poverty. Renewable energy technology was once seen as unaffordable for developing countries. However, since 2015, investment in non-hydro renewable energy has been higher in developing countries than in developed countries, and comprised 54% of global renewable energy investment in 2019. The International Energy Agency forecasts that renewable energy will provide the majority of energy supply growth through 2030 in Africa and Central and South America, and 42% of supply growth in China.
A solar lamp, also known as a solar light or solar lantern, is a lighting system composed of an LED lamp, solar panels, battery, charge controller and there may also be an inverter. The lamp operates on electricity from batteries, charged through the use of solar panel
Fábio Luiz de Oliveira Rosa is a Brazilian social entrepreneur whose initiatives have focused on rural electrification and the use of renewable energy sources.
Evans Wadongo is a Kenyan engineer, the co-founder of GreenWize Energy Ltd, the executive director and founder of SDFA-Kenya, and one of CNN's top ten heroes of 2010. He is a graduate in electronic and computer engineering from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya.
The Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Project (MPRLP) works with local village assemblies, Gram Sabha, to facilitate and guide community-driven collective and individual action to reduce poverty in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India.
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative is an American non-profit dedicated to designing everyday technologies for the global poor.
Great Lakes Energy is a Solar EPC company founded by Sam Dargan in 2005. The company is headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda and primarily serves the East African market. The company is specialized in on-grid and off-grid solar energy systems. For the past decade, the company has immersed in understanding and solving the energy challenges of those in East Africa. Today we use that knowledge and experience to design, build, and maintain solar power systems that are more reliable, more sustainable, and more affordable. The company provides non-governmental organizations, hospitals, and schools with optimized photovoltaic systems. The company has specialized in retrofitting existing off-grid PV solar system designs with optimized versions. In the past the company has also provided jobs for training local Rwandans on how to engineer and install these systems. The company also has provided training to other social entrepreneurs learning to operate in Africa.
Solar power in Somalia is, in 2012, being considered for development in the near future. Two items that are being made available in seven other African countries in the "Light Years Ahead" program that are being considered are solar lanterns and solar street lights. India has a very successful solar lamp program. A solar lamp costs about the same as a few months of kerosene for a kerosene lamp, and provides many years of light.
Nuru Energy is an international social enterprise which is working to address the global problem of energy poverty and climate change in Africa and India. This is through the distribution of affordable LED lamps that are recharged using a simple to use human powered generator that is more efficient than current solar.
Little Sun is a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 to deliver affordable clean energy in Africa and inspire people to take climate action globally. It was established by the engineer Frederik Ottesen and the artist Olafur Eliasson whose wide-ranging solo shows – featuring installations, paintings, sculptures, photography, and film – have appeared in major museums around the globe.
Concept of smart villages is a global modern approach for off-grid communities. Vision behind this concept is to assist the policy makers, donors and socio-economic planner for rural electrification worldwide.
Ann Kihengu is a Tanzanian entrepreneur, distributor, and winner of the 2010 Africa Laureate of the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards for her work to replace the use of kerosene lamps by distributing solar lamps and solar phone chargers in Tanzania via a network of young entrepreneurs. Kihengu is also a member of the World Entrepreneurship Forum Think Tank.
Social entrepreneurship in South Asia involves business activities that have a social benefit, often for people at the bottom of the pyramid. It is an emerging area of entrepreneurship that is supported by both the public sector and the private sector.
