SOLAR IS THE SOLUTION FOR SOUTH ASIA

Can solar power save South Asia?

Emily Cadei, Sept. 13, 2014 (Ozy via USA Today)

“…[The nonprofit EcoEnergyFinance] is out in the villages of Pakistan's Sindh Province, going where no electricity line has gone before. It sells solar lanterns that charge themselves under the baking South Asian sun, and then provide eight to 16 hours of electricity. Solar could well help fill the subcontinent's gaping energy needs…South Asia's needs are crushingly obvious…[A]mid talk of South Asia's economic miracles, energy remains a mammoth Achilles' heel. South Asia's energy resources just can't keep up with its booming population and economy…The regular sunshine amounts to a huge underutilized resource, as solar technology improves and costs fall. Potentially it could cut India's and Pakistan's reliance on foreign coal, gas and oil...[and solar could bring electricity to the hundreds of millions of [offgrid] rural poor who lack access, in the same way that mobile phones allowed millions of people to leapfrog the expensive infrastructure of the landline…Big projects are still shackled by a lack of financing options and know-how necessary to attract big private investors and scale up solar energy use. But that's not stopping pioneers…” click here for more

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