-
4 Mobile Money Powered Affordable Solar Electricity Solutions
December 29, 2012 Editor 0
Do you see that trend line in the chart above? Do you know what that means? Solar power is getting cheaper by the day, thanks to technological innovation and China’s solar panel export dumping. It also means that solar power can now be affordable for Africans.
Well “affordable” is always relative, and here we are talking about paying for solar power in installments, which can make even large capital expenditures affordable to many. A few intrepid entrepreneurs have taken up the challenge to finance solar power for poor people, often leveraging mobile phone networks for payment, and we should celebrate their initiative with a list of all that we know.
Here’s a start – please add more solar payment solutions in the comments section below:
- M-KOPA Solar in Kenya is Safaricom partnering with d.light to offer 3 bright bulbs and a mobile phone charging for daily installments of KES 40
- Simpa Networks in India offers 25-50 watts, enough to charge some CFLs, a mobile phone charger, a small fan or TV, via pay-as-you-go cards in Rs 50, 100, or 500 increments. After 2-3 years, when the system should be paid off entirely, it is unlocked and the customer has free electricity thereafter
- Econet Power in Zimbabwe provides its cell-phone customers with solar power as a customer benefit, charging them only $1 week to use a home solar system provided by Econet, with the bills tied to the customer’s cell phone account.
- IndiGo in Kenya offers light for two rooms and also power to charge a mobile for $1 a week via a scratch-card that reveals an unlock code typed into the system’s keypad
With these four as a start, let me know what other pay-as-you-go solar power systems are out there – let there be light on the solar revolution!
Related Posts
Solar-powered, mobile phone charging kiosk
Accept the Smartphone Reality in Development. Everyone Else Has
Is Facebook Zero the Future of Public Internet Access?
Bringing Internet to the World’s Villages
Going green with your devices: Could the sun be the answer to our power deficient smartphones?
5 Reasons Why Public Access Matters in the Age of Private Mobile Devices
Categories: ICT
Tags: affordable, Mobile phone, solar power
Human intelligence: Cleverer still The industrial Internet from a startup perspective
Subscribe to our stories
Recent Posts
- Entrepreneurial Alertness, Innovation Modes, And Business Models in Small- And Medium-Sized Enterprises December 30, 2021
- The Strategic Role of Design in Driving Digital Innovation June 10, 2021
- Correction to: Hybrid mosquitoes? Evidence from rural Tanzania on how local communities conceptualize and respond to modified mosquitoes as a tool for malaria control June 10, 2021
- BRIEF FOCUS: Optimal spacing for groundnuts in smallholder farming systems June 9, 2021
- COVID-19 pandemic: impacts on the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals in Africa June 9, 2021
Categories
Archives
Popular Post-All time
- A review on biomass-based... 1k views
- Apply Now: $500,000 for Y... 834 views
- Can blockchain disrupt ge... 816 views
- Test Your Value Propositi... 779 views
- Prize-winning projects pr... 740 views