SOLAR: Glimmers of Light in the "Developing World"

Treasure Beach Forum: TB Runnin's: SOLAR: Glimmers of Light in the "Developing World"
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Z on Monday, April 02, 2012 - 02:24 pm: Edit Post

Woe is me!...how often do we bemoan the situations of our inconveniences, discomforts, inadequacies, economic/social trials and tribulations without much thought of a what comparative situations might be around the globe.

Here's a slight development that, here locally, could seem to be not much greater than the replacement of some kerosene (tilley) lamps with small solar systems...but promises multiple benefits going forward:

Pay As You Go Solar Project:
While many countries are trying to wean themselves off expensive and dirty fossil fuel energy, much of the world is still waiting on any type of electricity. Some 1.4 billion people lack access to electricity, and rather than start them down the same path we’re trying to get off, the hope is that they can forgo the journey and just relax at the renewable-energy finish line.

However, as one would expect, it’s not as simple as installing huge wind and solar farms throughout parts of Africa and Asia. Most of the people in need of electricity live in rural areas, lacking infrastructure to connect to a power grid or the upfront money to install solar locally.

With this in mind, one company from Cambridge, U.K., developed an innovative, affordable way to deliver electricity to that 1.4 billion.

Eight19, whose name comes from the eight minutes and 19 seconds it takes for light from the sun to reach Earth, created a way to harness solar power using an organic solar cell that is printed onto a flexible, plastic sheet that produces power for their their pay-as-you-go solar power system, IndiGo.


VISUAL LINK:
www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/eight19-indigo-solar-power-system_n_1383078.ht ml?ref=green#s827497&title=PayAsYouGo_Solar_Project