800 million people are living without access to electricity and another 1.2 billion are living without reliable access to electricity.
Historically much of the world has relied on unsustainable fossil fuels to generate reliable sources of electricity and this has been a key driver of the climate crisis.
We must act fast and we must act now to make a difference.
Sustainable sources of energy like solar power are now universally available and affordable. One of the best ways to help fight climate change is to help make access to sustainable energy the primary energy choice for communities currently living without reliable access to electricity in the developing world.
The evolution of Solar Village Project
Solar village Project first got its start in India when we crowdfunded $6000 to buy 100 solar home lighting systems and distributed them to an impoverished off grid village in Bihar India. The impact this project had on the village was powerful and immediate. A village that was usually shrouded in darkness at night was lit up like it had never been before. Hundreds of people had just taken their first steps on the energy access ladder.
After that we continued to work with remote and off grid villages. Distributing thousands of solar lights to multiple communities in need. As we implemented more projects we wanted to move away from relying solely on crowdfunding and started looking for grants.
We met with a foundation that was intrigued by our efforts but we didn’t have anything but anecdotal evidence to show for the impact we were having. They asked how did we really know that what we were doing was making a difference?
We couldn’t point directly to any data that proved that our work was having the intended impact of improving the quality of life in some way.
In response to this problem we partnered with the Initiative For Sustainable Energy Policy at Johns Hopkins. ISEP researchers had already spent years doing impact evaluations on similar kinds of projects and were well equipped to help us understand whether or not our efforts were in vain by doing randomized controlled trials in rural villages.
With ISEP we collaborated on a field study that carefully analyzed rural households’ perception of solar lights and the impact solar lighting had on their lives, as well as a study on willingness to pay and impact on education. We found that our assumptions were being confirmed. People living in energy poverty consistently found value in owning a solar light.
As we collaborated with ISEP on impact evaluations we also started to reflect on the implications of the model we had chosen to utilize up until that point. Although charitable giving certainly has an important role to play in the world it’s not always the best paradigm when it comes to international development. We decided a better way to make an impact would be to start moving away from the original model of village wide distributions and to take a more focused approach. The way to do that was by partnering with grass roots organizations that were already deeply embedded in our target communities and launching our solar schools, clinics and microfinance programs in order to have a more longstanding and sustainable impact at scale.
