Solar/PV Hybrids in Microcredit Scemes.

I believe that a micro-grid network of small generators might have an excellent application within schemes such as this UNICEF one:

'Microcredit is the extension of small loans to groups of poor people, especially women, for the purpose of investing in self-employment programmes . It is a way of improving the earning capacity and therefore the standard of living of the poor. Nevertheless, a poor woman who generates income through microcredit but who does not have adequate access to health care for herself and her family, who lacks essential information about health and nutrition and who is unable to send her children to school is still living in poverty.

There is a greater reduction in poverty when microcredit programmes are combined with increased access to basic social services than when the programmes focus on credit alone.

When microcredit is linked with access to basic social services and key social development messages, the health and nutrition of borrowers' children -- particularly girls -- improves; school enrolment increases; safe water and sanitation use broadens. This combined approach, therefore, is an important strategy for achieving the year 2000 goals for children. Microcredit also empowers women, by enabling them to make economic decisions and become the source of increased household income. Experience shows that with the empowerment of women come significant improvements in children's survival rates, health, nutrition and development.'

The Grameen Bank operates a system similar to this in Bangladesh. Dr. Muhammed Yunus, founder of the micro-credit movement, won the 2006 Nobel peace prize as a result. His bank provides loans at an average of US$200 to people living in poverty, who don't qualify for bank loans. No collateral or credit history is required, instead an honour system comprises the standard to which individuals are held. There is a 99% repayment rate.

Approximately 94% of the bank is owned by its 6.6 million borrowers, six percent by the government of Bangladesh.

I always wanted to market the Turbine/PV hybrid as a piece of sculpture. Of course, some basic engineering principals must be adhered to first and foremost, but the profit-margin might be greatly increased simply through paying more attention to aesthetics than previously. This might classify as needless ornamentation, but in a world of ostentatious 'green' gestures would perhaps prove popular.

This (hopefully) higher profit margin would then be used to subsidise construction of turbines, which would be sold (or hopefully subsidised even further through grants) to situations like the above, at a reduced cost. If ornamentation could be further removed to allow a reduction in manufacture costs then this would be a factor. It is also worth remembering that the western world would consume so many more small turbines per capita, simply through relatively wasteful energy use. Every turbine sent to developing villages would go a lot further.

The UNICEF website above presents the wonderful example of a scheme in Andhra Pradesh:

In two districts of Andhra Pradesh, thousands of women come togeth er in small groups. They each save 1 rupee a day (currently $1 = 35.5 Indian rupees), pool their savings and rotate the sum among them selves for production and day-to-day needs and as a source of capital for micro-enterprises. The Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) scheme, supported by the Government and UNICEF, then extends further credit to the women once they have demonstrated their ability to form groups and save. Women are proud to display their passbooks and speak of their experiences.

In one village in Nellore District, for example, women have acquired land titles in their names and taken Rs180,000 as loans towards construction of their houses. They have said that they will not tolerate wife-beating and have forced their husbands to stop drinking alcohol. The longest-standing group in the village has rotated the revolving fund 25 times and also has a savings deposit of Rs30,000 in the bank. In another village, a group has saved Rs800,000. In total, the women of the district have mobilized savings of Rs60 million.

The women have used the revolving funds for productive activities, emergency consumption, health needs, marriages and children's education. The Total Literacy Campaign launched in the district in 1991 has brought education and information, with the savings groups becoming important centres for disseminating information on health, education, water and sanitation. There are visible changes in the health and nutrition of women and their children.

Thanks to Dina Mehta for her blog entry.