Grameen, Microfinance and the Sun...yes...the Sun

Courtney

We already know Grameen is a visionary. He was a step ahead of the world's financial institutions like in seeing the HUGE untapped market for consumer financial services to those without credit. 

And now he is one step ahead of the big energy companies in seeing the potential market for energy solutions to that same population.

Grameen Shakti - an affiliate organization of Grameen's - is providing microentrepreneurs with solar panels, green cooking stoves and wind turbines as well as the financing to purchase those technologies.

Grameen Shakti, located in Bangladesh, defines itself as providing an integrated approach to promoting renewable energy technologies. Solar panels have been the primary product since inception. To date, Grameen Shakti has installed over 100,000 solar panels like the one below in microentrepreneurs homes across the country.

 

And that is not all they do, they are also in the business of biogas. Grameen Shakti provides "green" stoves that are fueled with methane gas sourced from animal excrement. Animal waste is aggregated in contained areas. It then naturally breaks down into its elementary particles - namely methane gas- overtime via a process called anaerobic digestion. The gas is ducted over to a stove and then used for cooking.

And the clean technology applications they have implemented in the past or plan to implement in the future goes on and on: micro-wind turbines for power generation and organic fertilizer for increasing crop yields.

The organization has won a number of awards for its innovative technology. Most recently it was named the 2008 winner of the Ashden Award for Sustainable Development.  And before that, the Grameen Foundation selected the organization to receive its 2007 Green Award.

Something tells me that this is not the first or the last  organization we will see that is combining green and microfinance. Green Microfinance is already proof of that....

Comments

[Awais Khan]

I was v impressed by Grameen Shakti when I was looking for Waste to Energy solutions for the developing world a couple of years ago. We are now in the process of setting up a similar model in Pakistan.

We also tried to get Prof. Yunis for GG 08, but it was too late of a notice this year. Oh well, maybe next year...