The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to design, fund and implement solar energy solutions to benefit those in poor rural communities without access to an electrical grid. This allows students to study at night and brings computers and Internet into schools. It makes it possible to bring in water for irrigation without having to hand-carry it long distances, allowing women to spend their time on money-earning enterprises. Access to electricity and water improves health care. SELF has completed several projects in more than 20 countries including a solar powered drip irrigation in Benin, a health care center in Haiti, telemedicine in the Amazon rainforest, online learning platform in South Africa, and a microenterprise development in Nigeria.
Methodology
SELF employs a Whole Village Development Model using a mix of solar energy solutions to improve the lives of the 1.5 billion people who don't have access to electricity around the world. It seeks to provide benefits in:
Education: powering lights, computers and wireless internet services. Health: powering facility lights, labs, diagnostic equipment and vaccine refrigerators. Water & Agriculture: powering water wells and pumps for clean drinking water and year-round crop irrigation. Enterprise: powering centers for small businesses and providing electricity for machinery and equipment. Community: electrifying homes, community centers and street lighting.
History
Founding SELF was founded in 1990 by Neville Williams, a journalist and author, who had experience actively promoting solar power as a consultant to the United States Department of Energy during the Carter administration. For much of the 1990s, SELF's primary mission was to deliver solar home systems – 50-watt units installed at the household level that could generate enough power to run a few compact fluorescent lights, a radio, and a small black and white television for four or five hours each evening. The electricity generated by the solar panel is stored in a battery, which then provides power at night and during rainy weather. In its early projects, SELF used funds donated by private philanthropies to buy home-size photovoltaic systems in bulk on the open market, usually enough for one small village at a time. SELF then sold the systems to villagers in developing areas, in partnership, where possible, with in-country nonprofit agencies. Each participating household made a 20 percent down payment on a solar energy system and paid off the balance – usually between $300 and $400 – over several years. The buyers' payments were pooled in a local revolving loan fund from which their neighbors could borrow to buy their own solar power gear. SELF used a portion of the proceeds on the equipment to establish a local dealership and train residents as solar installers and technicians. The revolving loan funds made it possible for villagers to finance the continued dissemination of solar systems in their areas.
Focusing on the Home & Creating SELCO Over time, SELF began to evolve more elaborate project structures. In a joint venture with local partners in India, SELF formed a for-profit subsidiary using India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to tap World Bank funds set aside specifically for photovoltaic installations. In part, the company used the money to finance rural co-ops' bulk purchase of solar-energy systems for their members, to install the systems, and to train local technicians. The company then repaid the World Bank's loan from funds collected from the co-ops. In 1997, SELF decided to launch a for-profit affiliate, the Solar Electric Light Company, or SELCO, based in Bangalore, India, whose goal would be to sell solar home systems in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Neville Williams stepped down from his role with SELF to run SELCO, and SELF's board of directors appointed Robert A. Freling as the new executive director. Since 1995, SELCO has sold, serviced, and financed over 115,000 solar systems.
Expanding Services Beginning in 2000, SELF embarked on its next generation of projects that would seek to harness solar energy for things such as advancing water pumping and purification, purveying electrification to rural schools and health clinics, providing power to small businesses and micro-enterprises, and facilitating communication access. The first opportunity to fulfill this expanded vision was found in South Africa, where SELF had been working on a project to install solar home systems in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. SELF installed a 2.4-kilowatt solar array, which generated enough electricity to power approximately 20 PCs donated by Dell Computers and a small satellite dish that delivered Internet access to Myeka High School. This was the first solar-powered computer lab built in South Africa, and the pass rate at Myeka High School jumped from 30 percent to 70 percent within a year and a half of installation.
Whole Village Development Model In 2003, SELF found the opportunity to implement a "Whole-Village" approach when the United States Department of Energy (DOE) invited SELF to carry out a solar electrification project in Nigeria. With support from the DOE, SELF equipped three villages in Jigawa State, in northern Nigeria, with solar power systems for a community water-pumping system, a health clinic, a primary school, street lighting, a portable irrigation pump, and a micro-enterprise center. Since then, SELF has continued to implement this model in other project countries.
Past Projects SELF has worked in over 20 countries, using solar energy to power health clinics, schools, community centers, water pumps, mosques, drip irrigation, streetlights, and micro-enterprise centers. In addition to its current project sites, SELF has worked in Bhutan, Brazil, Burundi, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lesotho, the Navajo Nation, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
Current Projects
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