13 results · grouped by type
Barefoot College — Solar MamasTrains illiterate rural women as solar engineers who electrify their own villages.Solar Mamas MalawiEight Malawian women trained at Barefoot College return home to deliver rural solar electrification.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.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.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.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.
Evidence 4
IRENA–Barefoot College partnership leaves rural footprintInternational Renewable Energy Agency · 2022 · reportdocumentMeet the mamas fighting poverty through solar powerVSO International · 2019 · case_studydocumentWhat are we doing here? Analyzing fifteen years of energy scholarship and proposing a social science research agendaElsevier, Energy Research & Social Science, vol. 1, pp. 1-29 · 2014 · paperdocumentA cross-sectional review: Impacts and sustainability of small-scale renewable energy projects in developing countriesElsevier, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 40, pp. 1-10 · 2014 · paperdocument