Interlinked Climate & Energy Challenges

2007June21: From Ashden Awards, “Lao PDR: Sunlabob Renewable Energies Ltd is a solar PV business based in the capital of Laos that has succeeded in developing an innovative and commercially viable business model providing high-quality solar PV systems to the rural poor at a price they can afford. High up-front costs often prevent people from opting for solar energy. Sunlabob has addressed this by providing a service which rents out solar PV at prices that start lower than the cost of kerosene. This commercial approach works because Sunlabob uses high-quality components to ensure reliability and places a strong emphasis on customer support and training local entrepreneurs to maintain the systems. To date 1,870 solar systems, including 20 larger ones for community use, and 500 solar lanterns are rented to families in 73 villages providing electricity for lighting, entertainment and other uses such as refrigeration for vaccines. The potential for growth is huge; Sunlabob is already installing systems at a rate of 500 a year, and new investment this year will allow it to scale up to 2,500 systems, and 5,000 after that” (Ashden Awards, 2007). The program won a 2007 Ashden Award. The Ashden Awards promote local sustainable energy solutions in the UK and the developing world.

Reference: Ashden Awards. 2007. http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/sunlabob?t=aa

Image Description: A Sunlabob technician checks solar lamps. Image Location: Ashden Awards. http://www.ashdenawards.org/winners/sunlabob?t=aa Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.