The Solar for the Masses campaign is a 30-day drive through Nigeria to deliver solar lamps/phone chargers to rural communities in all 36 states of the country + the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja). Its essence is to create practical awareness in rural areas for the potential of solar power in transforming their lives. The lamps are being sponsored by corporate Nigeria and kind individuals.
Recipients of the solar appliances - such as rural primary health care centers, micro-enterprises etc - are being chosen by local authorities in each state.
During the road trip, they will also want to identify hard-working, illiterate [or barely literate] rural women, and select a few of them for training as Solar Engineers [a model successfully deployed in India]. This will create jobs for an unlikely segment (women, poor people) and lift the rural population out of a needless cycle of poverty. Imagine rural women taking up "Green" jobs as solar engineers, solar troubleshooters, and solar panel installers. Imagine the fantastic impact the project will have in reviving Nigeria's economy at the grassroots.
Solar for the Masses kicks off form Abuja on May 26th, 2010.
Find out more about it at their website here...http://www.solarjooce.com/web/index.php
3 comments:
The 'poor' women selected for trainning better be really poor! Otherwise we'll be remixing the same old song.
This idea like many in Nigeria is good. However, it appears very important dynamics which are important for the success of this project have been over looked. For a technology to be truly sustainable is has to be cheap, efficient, sourced from renewable & recyclable materials. Solar devices have an efficiency at best 30 % in spite of their long life span. However, these lamps as is te case with solar devices are costly. The lamps cost between
N7,500 to N14,500. Who can afford this? On the other hand for as low as N5,000 these people can afford biogas digesters which can provide same benefits for a longer time. Perhaps more research is needed to make these laudable projects a reality. Groeten.
The solar power is considered as the new energy for us and it is green power for the environment. We should encourage more people using it in the life.
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