The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) helps rural, off-grid people in developing countries to power a brighter future through clean, renewable energy and modern communications.
SELF’s projects are shaped by local priorities and led by local people, often women, and address critical needs in homes, schools, clinics, agriculture, and microenterprise. A nonprofit formed in 1990, SELF has mounted high-impact projects in thirteen developing nations, from Brazil to the Solomon Islands, bringing the benefits of clean solar power to over 100,000 people. Its efforts have earned honors including the Green Cross Millennium Award for International Environmental Leadership, and selection as a Laureate in the 2002 Tech Museum of Innovation Awards.
Global climate change is threatening the stability of climate and ecosystems all around the world. The average US citizen produces 5 tons of CO2 a year from the use of fossil fuels for their personal use, through electricity, home heating, and in vehicles and airplanes. This includes all America’s babies and grannies, so a typical working householder might produce 10 or 15 tons a year. We need to find ways to reduce our emissions, and to neutralize the effect of those which we cannot reduce.
A $400 solar PV home system, installed by SELF in a village in Nigeria or the Amazon, which replaces kerosene as the main source of lighting, will offset 6 tons of CO2 over its 20-year lifetime. If a contribution of $400 is invested in a revolving loan fund, enabling the financing of 6.6 solar home systems over this 20-year period, this will offset 40 tons of CO2, at a price of $10 per ton.
On average, SELF installs 1,000 solar PV systems a year in developing nation villages, averaging 50 watts each. By replacing the use of kerosene and diesel, each system prevents 6 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere over its 20 year life. Altogether, therefore SELF’s activities prevent 6,000 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.
If your personal emissions of CO2 are 10 tons a year, and you contribute $100 to the Solar Electric Light Fund, SELF will use your donation to offset your emissions for one year by bringing solar energy to 6 or 7 families in Bhutan, the Solomon Islands, Tanzania or one of the other countries where SELF works. You will help speed up the global solar revolution, while acting responsibly as a global citizen. You will also receive a charitable tax receipt.
SELF - powering a brighter 21st century through clean, renewable energy.
This sounds like a commendable venture and one that holds much promise for lessening fossil fuel dependence. I only wish that such affordable technology were available in industrialized nations as well!
Posted by: thebizofknowledge | August 28, 2006 at 12:47 PM