Green Energy for a Billion Poor

ISBN: 978-3-943310-00-9
Verlag: MCRE Verlag

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 371 g

"Green Energy for a Billion Poor" reveals for the first time the story of Grameen Shakti, uncovering its remarkable growth, its pioneering philosophy and its unparalleled entrepreneurial approach to business. Readers will trace Shakti s evolution in rural Bangladesh - one of the toughest business environments in the world - while learning how they can adopt and adapt the Grameen Shakti way to their own organizations. By understanding and embracing Shakti s innovative business model, readers will learn how they can replicate Shakti s success in a scalable way, showing them how to profit by thinking long-term, providing full service, and bringing green energy and jobs, hope and prosperity to millions of villagers. "Green Energy for a Billion Poor" illustrates the possibilities in the untapped market of billions of rural customers in developing countries who are deprived of electricity. The analysis and description of a unique business model, combined with the authentic stories of those who made it happen, make this a compelling, insightful and entertaining book.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wimmer, Nancy

Wimmer, Klaus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

From the contents:
Preface, Acknowledgements, Foreword
PART 1-the Days of the Pioneers
1 Bootstrapping in the Hinterland
2 Developing the DNA of a Social Business
3 Becoming the Little Company That Could
PART 2-the Art of Rural Business
4 Planting the Seeds of Success in the Field
5 Keeping the Engine Running
6 Working on the Cutting Edge of Business
PART 3-Much Lies Ahead
6 Change Reaches the Village
7 A Quantum Leap in Social Business
Appendix

Leseproben

"The Grameen Way of Doing Business
Hundreds of excited people crowded the village schoolyard. Students had stacked a few benches on top of each other for a make-shift platform. As the young engineer climbed onto the shaky stage, the crowd quieted in anticipation. The engineer held a small battery-operated radio in his hand. He raised it over his head. The crowd could hear music being played from a local radio station. Then he removed the battery, showed it to the crowd, and hooked the radio to a half-watt solar panel. The music played on the radio without the battery. The amazed crowd shouted "Jadukor! You must be a magician."
The young engineer laughed and explained that the solar panel was not magic, but simply making use of something Bangladesh has plenty of-sunlight. "The energy comes from the sun," he told the astonished students, "something which has fascinated scientists for hundreds of years. A century ago, a young French physicist discovered the solar cell. Scientists later experimented with generating solar electricity to provide power aboard a spacecraft. During the oil crisis in the 1970s the President of the United States had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. People use solar power to run pocket calculators in Japan. And now, after so many years have passed, solar technology is here-in your village."What seemed like magic to the people on that village field was nothing more than the solar power generated by a tiny half-watt panel. Far more incredible would be the ripple effect this was to cause in the community in the years to come. No one listening to that solar-powered radio had anything better at home than candles and kerosene lanterns for light and batteries to power radios and televisions. More than a hundred million people in rural Bangladesh had no access to the electric grid and little chance of getting it in future. The grid expanded so slowly to remote villages that most young people would not enjoy the benefit of electricity in their lifetime.
In 1995, the Grameen Bank decided to address the problem of a lack of grid access and began exploring alternatives to grid electricity for its more than two million borrowers in rural Bangladesh. The time was right. Twenty years of Grameen Bank experience had demonstrated that the rural poor can successfully start small businesses with access to microcredit. To further support its borrowers, the bank had introduced loans for family enterprises and houses: A house offers a safe dry space to work the year round. But most of these businesses needed electricity to prosper.
The bank first asked energy experts to work together with its engineering department. They installed solar systems in Grameen borrowers houses on an experimental basis and explored the renewable energy options available. A decentralized power supply with solar home systems seemed best suited to rural households. Except for the price. "I thought we should go on experimenting even if the solar systems were expensive," recalls Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and Nobel Laureate. "The solar home system experiment excited me. Rural demand for energy was huge and solar technology available. For the first time I felt this could be done if we could find ways to make solar systems affordable as a consumer product...."

Über Autor(innen)

Nancy Wimmer is an entrepreneur, researcher, and advisor to the World Council of Renewable Energy. She specializes in microfinance and rural electrification in developing countries. She has been involved with Grameen Bank since 1990 and with Grameen Shakti since its inception in 1996. Her career has many facets. Her political campaigns have targeted the German Government, the European Commission, the World Bank, and the United Nations. Her practical work has led her to the rural parts of Bangladesh, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Honduras, Nepal and Peru. She has lectured and published extensively and has advised investors and entrepreneurs. Nancy, an American citizen, studied law and political science, holds a Masters of Philosophy, and lives with her family near Munich.