Page 27 - ISES SWC50

Many people working in the grid connect market are completely unaware that there is an industry where
people are providing systems to households in the 5 to 100W range. Those providing MW systems would
see these small systems as insignificant, however in reality, they are not. At one stage Grameen Shatki, an
organisation in Bangladesh, was supplying 30,000 to 50,000 of these systems a month and employing 14,000
people. That equates to 14,000 jobs per 1 to 2MW of systems per month—a significant social benefit in rural
regions of a country.

Off-grid can be a hard but rewarding market to work in. Many of the people who started in this market in
developing countries last century, are industry pioneers that are passionate in what they did (and still do.)
For this reason, the highlights of the 1980’s and 1990’s includes the names of some of the individuals and
companies who were the early leaders in providing solar power to the unelectrified. The work undertaken by
these people lead to many small businesses being established, however unfortunately it is difficult to obtain
information or list all of those in this booklets.

The highlights demonstrate that although upfront costs of solar was relatively high at the time (and can still be
for some), it was the provision of micro-finance and similar schemes for people to pay off their solar that led
to many systems being sold through private industry. When compared to the grid electricity, providing power
with solar home systems at the time on a $/kWh energy price was more expensive, however what was often
forgotten was that these people were using kerosene or disposable batteries that reflected a much higher cost
than that of solar.

The highlights provide a sample of some of the aid programs that were introduced and their various objectives
such as promote and raise awareness of the use of solar in rural areas, buy down (reduce) the upfront cost of
the solar, and/or provide the capital for the microfinance.

The last 20 years has seen companies manufacturing the plug and play solar home systems, programs such
as Lighting Global that introduced a Quality Assurance Framework for these products, and Global Industry
Associations such as Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) and the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association
(GOGLA) being established to help develop off-grid markets. The summary includes these initiatives and lists
some of the early manufacturers of the plug and play products, however these are just a sample of the many
that have now entered the industry.

Ideally, the highlights would have included the actual figures on the number of individuals who are powered by
small off grid solar home systems, however this data is difficult (or impossible) to obtain. What is available and
shown are the number of unelectrified people, how many households (and individuals) have benefited from
some of the solar aid programs, as well as the figures being provided by Lighting Global and organisations
like GOGLA.

ISES SWC50 - The Century of Solar-Stories and Visions | 9