23 results for “solar” · grouped by type
practices
23Piramal Sarvajal solar water ATMs (franchise safe drinking water)A social enterprise that installs water ATMs: solar-powered, cloud-connected purified water dispensing machines operated by a local entrepreneur under a franchise model. Users pay with a prepaid RFID card. An IoT device (Soochak) monitors quality, liters and machine health in real time. It operates hundreds of plants in rural and urban areas across several states.SIRDO - Sistema Integral de Reciclamiento de Desechos Orgánicos (Grupo de Tecnología Alternativa)A dry/ecological sanitation system developed since 1978 by the Grupo de Tecnología Alternativa (GTA), coordinated by architect Josefina Mena Abraham. The dry SIRDO is a double-chamber composting toilet with solar heating that treats excreta and organic waste without water, producing biofertilizer. Its community management placed women at the center of the technical, economic and social operation of the system. It operated in multiple states for decades.Bahía Málaga energy community (solar-diesel hybrid microgrid, La Plata)Energy community in the La Plata archipelago, Uramba Bahía Málaga (Valle del Cauca). FENOGE, with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, installed a solar-diesel hybrid microgrid plus 40 individual solar systems to bring energy from 4 up to 24 hours a day to Afro-descendant settlements (about 291 families). It began operating in May 2025. After the inauguration, the community reported that the system does not work as promised: when the diesel plant fails, the batteries last about two hours, far from the announced 70% solar / 30% diesel; the works were inaugurated without closing out the contract or verifying all the equipment.De CeuvelCircular urban laboratory built in 2014 on a formerly contaminated shipyard in Amsterdam-Noord, granted by the municipality under a temporary concession (winning plan of a 2012 municipal competition, land lent for 10 years). A consortium (Space&Matter with Metabolic's sustainability plan) transformed the toxic soil using phytoremediation and populated the site with ~17 refurbished houseboats serving as offices for creative and social enterprises, plus a café-restaurant and event spaces. It operates as a 'living lab' for cleantech systems: solar panels, helophyte filters for wastewater, an aquaponics greenhouse, struvite reactors to recover nutrients and the Jouliette token for peer-to-peer energy exchange.Coöperatie DeltawindRenewable energy cooperative on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee (Zuid-Holland), founded in August 1989 by island residents who wanted to generate their own green electricity, with more than 2.400 members. It develops and operates wind and solar farms on the island and is co-developer, together with Zeeuwind, of Windpark Krammer. It reinvests profits in local sustainability projects through its cooperative structure and its Stichting Windfonds Goeree-Overflakkee. It is a historic pillar of the Dutch citizen energy cooperative movement.Solar Mamas MalawiEight Malawian women trained at Barefoot College return home to deliver rural solar electrification.GridFlex HeetenLocal energy market pilot in the Veldegge neighborhood of Heeten (Overijssel), where 48 households tested for the first time salt batteries (Dr Ten) combined with solar panels and dynamic pricing. A consortium (Endona, Enexis/Enpuls, Escozon, University of Twente, ICT Group, Dr Ten, Buurkracht) designed a market where energy is generated, stored, traded and consumed locally. Endona obtained an exemption from the Electricity Act to experiment. The study showed that grid peaks were reduced by up to 36% with savings for the community.Kio Kit (BRCK Education)A digital classroom in a box designed and manufactured in Kenya by BRCK: a rugged case with 40 shockproof Kio tablets, wireless/solar charging and a local server with offline curricular content, for schools without reliable electricity or internet. Launched in 2015, it was deployed in several countries and won design awards. BRCK set it aside around 2017-2018 and today the company focuses on voice infrastructure; the education product no longer exists.Husk Power Systems - biomass+solar hybrid mini-gridsHusk Power Systems, founded in 2008 in Bihar, started out generating electricity with biomass gasifiers that used rice husk to electrify off-grid villages. Between 2007 and 2013 it built close to 80 plants that provided electricity to about 250,000 people in 350 villages in India and Africa. In the mid-2010s it pivoted to solar+storage+biomass hybrid mini-grids capable of delivering 24/7 power. By 2024-2025 it operates more than 400 mini-grids in India and Nigeria.SteamaCo smart-metering platform for rural solar mini-gridsSteamaCo began in 2012 as a developer of rural mini-grids in Kenya (with origins in the NGO Access:Energy, founded in 2009 on the shores of Lake Victoria; first microgrid with smart metering in 2013 on Remba Island) and later pivoted to a smart metering and remote management software company. Its cloud platform lets independent operators sell energy on prepaid accounts with mobile money, monitor consumption in real time and detect faults remotely. The pivot from asset owner to software provider is the innovation lesson. In 2024 it acquired Shyft Power Solutions.BATx: electrification with second-life batteries and solar (Katanzama project)BATx, a Colombian company born in 2020 at Universidad EAFIT (Medellín), remanufactures lithium batteries retired from electric vehicles to give them a second life as solar energy storage. It has manufactured more than 1.000 batteries and avoided more than 750 tonnes of CO2 and 30 tonnes of waste. With support from Youth4Climate and allies such as Maslight Solar and Fundación Socya, it brings solar systems with storage to rural communities. In the Katanzama project (Arhuaco community of the Sierra Nevada, Youth4Climate Award 2023) it installed solar generation and storage for the health post, the community hall and the school. In April 2025, EPM announced a new investment in BATx.SEWA women farmers' cluster farming (Gujarat)SEWA cluster farming initiative for small and marginal women farmers in Gujarat. Women farmers group together to increase their bargaining power, buy inputs collectively, access markets and add value. In a cluster of 100 potato farmers, solar cold storage (10 MT) and machinery to produce potato chips were installed, allowing them to sell at the optimal time (INR 14/kg instead of 7/kg) and raise gross margins from 50% to 75%.SELCO India - decentralized last-mile solar energy servicesSELCO Solar Light, a for-profit social enterprise founded in 1995 in Bangalore, provides tailored decentralized solar energy solutions (home systems, lighting, pumps and productive-use equipment) to low-income households and microenterprises. It combines sales and service with tailored financing, including the 'productive asset credit', which finances a productive-use solar system as a business loan. It operates through a network of local branches that provide long-term maintenance.Barefoot College — Solar MamasTrains illiterate rural women as solar engineers who electrify their own villages.M-KOPA pay-as-you-go solar home systemsM-KOPA pioneered the pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar home system model in Kenya: founded in 2010 in Nairobi, commercially launched in late 2012. Households pay a deposit and then daily or weekly micro-payments via mobile money (M-Pesa), with a GSM/M2M chip that locks the unit if payments stop. Once the payments are completed, the customer owns the solar kit. The model turned an unaffordable purchase into a financeable asset for off-grid and underbanked households, and later expanded into financing for smartphones, appliances and loans.Iluméxico: solar home systems and ILUCentrosSocial enterprise that designs, installs and maintains solar home systems, microgrids and clean energy solutions for rural communities without grid access. It operates a network of regional centers (ILUCentros) with locally recruited 'community engineers' who assess territories, sell, install and maintain the systems, connected to the Prometeo device. It has reached more than 100,000 people (cumulative impact >102,541 in 2,000 communities, 60% indigenous; ~23,126 families).BURN Manufacturing Jikokoa clean cookstovesBURN Manufacturing designs and locally manufactures efficient cookstoves (flagship: the charcoal-burning Jikokoa) in a solar-powered factory near Nairobi, which opened its vertically integrated plant in 2014, the first modern one of its kind in the region. The Jikokoa uses far less charcoal than the traditional ceramic jiko. Distribution combines retail, credit sales and prices subsidized with carbon finance. An independent RCT with 1,000 households in Nairobi (Berkouwer & Dean, AER 2022) validated the efficiency and welfare gains.Community EV charging station in Mingueo (POLEN's E-Rurality project)Colombia's first community EV charging station, in Mingueo, Dibulla (La Guajira). POLEN Transiciones Justas and EoloMotors SAS, with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Universidad de La Guajira and the Junta de Acción Comunal of Mingueo, set up a solar system with 12 panels (6,5 kWp), 7 lithium batteries (24 kWh) and a 6 kW inverter that charges electric motorcycles used for transport and agricultural cargo toward the Sierra Nevada. Six community members received certified training in retrofitting motorcycles to electric. Inaugurated on 16 April 2024.Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (KOSAP)KOSAP is a flagship program of the Kenyan government (Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, financed by the World Bank, USD 150M IDA) to bring electricity and clean cooking to 14 underserved counties in the arid belt and the north. Approved by the World Bank Board on 26 Jul 2017 and effective on 8 Mar 2018, it combines results-based financing and debt facilities to deploy stand-alone solar systems, solar mini-grids and clean cooking solutions through private providers. A second restructuring (3 Oct 2024) extended the closing date to 30 Sep 2026; it targets ~1.3 million people and (2025 communication) is expanding to about 430,000 households.Gram Oorja - community solar micro-gridsGram Oorja Solutions, founded in 2008 in Pune, designs and installs solar micro-grids operated by the communities themselves in remote off-grid villages, many of them tribal. Its pilot in Darewadi (Maharashtra, 2012) was a 9.36 kWp solar micro-grid for 39 households that also powers a mill and water pumps. The model is Build-Operate-Transfer: a village trust collects tariffs, manages maintenance and takes ownership, with strong participation of women. It has been replicated in more than 150 villages across several states.Tosepan solar energy sovereignty / Onergia cooperative (Cuetzalan)Energy sovereignty process led by Nahua (maseual) and Totonac indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nororiental de Puebla. The Onergia cooperative, created in 2017 and accompanied by the Unión de Cooperativas Tosepan Titataniske, installs photovoltaic systems in cooperative hotels (Taselotzin, Tosepan Kali), training centers and homes, and trains young people in panel installation and eco-technologies. In Cuetzalan ~160 panels have been installed; at the Taselotzin hotel the electricity bill dropped from ~8,000 to ~700 pesos per month.Coöperatie ZeeuwindCitizen wind energy cooperative in the province of Zeeland, founded in 1987 by Zeelanders opposed to nuclear power. It started with the Bath wind farm and today (co-)owns 13 wind farms with 73 turbines in Zeeland, as well as solar parks. It has more than 3.000 members who contribute capital and receive returns, with the energy generated locally and profits reinvested in the province. It is one of the oldest and most resilient energy cooperatives in the Netherlands and the main subject of an academic study on the survival of community initiatives.Sauti za Wananchi Kenya (Twaweza)Africa's first nationally representative mobile phone survey panel applied in Kenya, operated by Twaweza East Africa. ~2,000 citizens, randomly sampled and equipped with phones and solar chargers to include poor or off-grid households, are interviewed monthly about public services, governance and priorities. The open citizen data is turned into briefs that inform ministries, oversight bodies and the press.