Message-ID: <mailto:9505298044.AA804470831@tcplink.nrel.gov> Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 17:03:04 MDT From: Kristi Phillips <mailto:phillipk@TCPLINK.NREL.GOV> Subject: Renewable Energy for Income Generation To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
I am doing research on using electricity from renewable energy (solar, wind, etc) for activities to increase incomes in rural villages. Examples are lights for night work or sales, agroprocessing, irrigation pumping, and ice-making. We are trying to build a strategy for developing renewable energy (RE) as a part of the larger development context and believe that there some natural linkages with the microenterprise development/revolving loan fund fields to both help to develop income generating activities, and to help finance the systems.
I am interested in hearing from anyone who might have some ideas on the following, or would like to discuss possibilities for developing the productive uses of electricity. I'm sending this same message to the DEVEL-L and devfinance lists. Are there other lists that would be relevant? Kristi Phillips, National Renewable Energy Laboratory - email: mailto:phillipk@tcplink.nrel.gov.
Examples of, or ideas on:
-"typical" village businesses in various regions
-businesses that are best suited to take advantage of the electricity.
-businesses (formal or informal) currently using RE systems.
-partnerships between NGO's doing microloans/income generation and housing, natural resource management, ???. What are some of the lessons learned from those partnerships.
-NGOs doing innovative work in subsector development, value-added products, flexible manufacturing networks, incubators, non-cash repayment of loans.
-alternative ways to finance systems: small home systems - microloans, leasing, pay per use but owned by state or other entity
larger capacity systems - joint ownership by cooperatives, incubators, or enterprise zones.
-use and maintenance: -ways to educate on the best use of electricity, system, maintenance.
-how to develop opportunities in the RE industry: installation, maintenance, parts manufacturing, system sales.