Talks and Workshops

The World Bank estimates that there are 2 billion people in 400 million houses, which do not have access to grid electricity. During the last 25 years there have been many government or donor funded “demonstration” systems installed to show how solar power can meet the needs of the people in rural areas who are not connected to the grid. Unfortunately in many cases these projects are not working today due to the lack of suitable maintenance or the inability to have equipment repaired or replaced when it has failed. However, few of the more successful private-sector driven programs have had no choice but to establish best practices in marketing, selling, designing, installing, training end-users and providing after sales service, in order to grow the business. They have learned many lessons also from past "demonstration" project experiences. Yet, these experiences are isolated and not common knowledge. It is more because of the challenges and barriers to doing business in rural areas of developing countries. The businesses have to be operated in a decentralised manner, just like the technology. The resulting transaction costs are high in the short term, but in the long term, a huge market exists for businesses entering the market. These problems and barriers have been recognised and many rural electrification programs (using PV) are now incorporating suitable training for the installation, maintenance and soft skills for selling and nurturing customers. Though this is an improvement it does not go far enough. It has been identified that to be effective, a rural electrification program should facilitate the people using the energy to contribute towards income generation activities. In addition to the new PV solar systems providing the end-user the opportunity to generate income the technicians who are trained to install the system and maintain the system should turn these skill into a business. They therefore generate an income by supplying the service of installation and maintenance. This has to be complemented with marketing and selling skills. This business at the end of the day is about people and relationships. The technical skills have to be complemented by the soft skills to ensure long-term success. To survive, these small businesses require knowledge in the technical aspects of renewable energy and the skills in operating a successful business. This lecture summarises a new book which brings together all the skills required to run a successful solar business in either a rural area or in a city. It is aimed at the person who wants to start a new solar energy business in a developing country. This book will be used as the resource book for short courses on “Running your own solar business”. We believe that this will be an ideal lecture for Sustainable Resources 2003 since it is a “How to” book which meets the objectives of this conference.