Solar Energy for the Poor
Photovoltaic electricity might one day be a profitable business, even in developing countries. While the biggest markets for solar power continue to be Germany, Japan, and the United States, some researchers said Wednesday evening that they soon hope to target developing countries. “There have been past failures,” said Bernard McNelis, managing director and co-founder of renewable energy consultancy IT Power, at the European Photovoltaic Industry Association’s industry forum Wednesday. “But the programs going on now recognize the failures of the past and plan to tackle the problems in a long-term, sustainable way. I think the tide has turned.”

Poor people get solar power
Solar power generation systems have been installed in the homes of 351 poor families in Phuket as part of a nationwide project to bring power to areas not yet connected to the main grid. Announcing this at a meeting at the Thavorn Grand Plaza hotel on September 4, Prawat Siripatrodom of the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEC), said that a further 100 householders have applied for solar power but were disqualified because they lack house registration documents. The PEC and district authorities will work together to try and solve that problem, K. Prawat said. He explained that the Solar Home System project has a budget of more than 5 billion baht from the central government, sufficient to install solar power in about 203,000 households around Thailand. “So far we have installed systems in 180,000 homes. The remaining homes are mostly in the North and the Deep South,” he said.