Uganda

Fruits of the Nile

Solar drying business links rural farmers with export markets

Fruits of the Nile, a local company in southern Uganda, is helping small farmers harness the power of the sun to dry and export fruit that is surplus to local demand. Each year, Fruits of the Nile produces and exports about 120 tonnes of high-quality dried banana and pineapple from its factory in Njeru. The fresh fruit is prepared and dried in simple solar driers by 120 producer groups in rural areas – groups who buy fruit from over 800 farmers and employ about 500 labourers. Fruits of the Nile currently operates to fair trade standards and is converting the whole supply chain to organic production.

India

Aryavart Gramin Bank

Bank helps customers buy solar home systems

The Aryavart Gramin Bank in Uttar Pradesh used solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to back-up the unreliable grid power for some of its branches, and recognised the potential of PV for its many off-grid customers. The bank set up a bulk supply and installation agreement with TATA-BP for PV solar-home systems, and provides loans for its customers with a good credit record to purchase the systems. To date 20,000 loans have been approved and 10,000 solar-home systems installed.

China

Renewable Energy Development Project (REDP)

Bringing affordable, high-quality solar lighting to rural China

Since 2001, REDP has enabled sales of over 402,000 photovoltaic (PV) solar-home systems to yak and other herding communities in remote areas of western China. Most of these previously relied for light on kerosene, butter lamps and candles. Around 1.6 million people, many of whom live in tents for at least part of the year and previously had little access to electricity, now have an improved quality of life through better light, communications and entertainment.

Tanzania

Kisangani Smith Group

Blacksmiths develop wood-saving stoves

To complement its work in training blacksmiths and in reforestation, the Kisangani Smith Group, run by volunteers, has developed two types of efficient biomass stove which can be hand-made by local smiths. One stove replaces the widespread use of charcoal in towns: it burns sawdust (readily available as waste in the Njombe region of Tanzania) or agricultural residues. The other stove is an improved wood-burner, targeted at rural areas. Over 3,500 stoves have been sold by the Kisangani Smith Group and its trainees.

Brazil

Cooperativa Regional de Eletrificação Rural do Alto Uruguai Ltda (CRERAL)

Mini hydro increases electricity supply on local grid

Tired of regular power cuts, members of CRERAL, a regional electrification cooperative, decided to invest in two small, local hydro-electric plants instead of buying all their electricity from large hydro and fossil-fuelled plants elsewhere. CRERAL supplies electricity via the grid to 6,300 mainly rural customers in the south of Brazil.

Ethiopia

Gaia Association

Clean, safe stoves for refugee homes

17,000 people live in the Kebribeyah refugee camp, having fled conflict in bordering Somalia, and they rely on fuelwood for cooking. The Gaia Association has provided ethanolfuelled stoves to 1,780 refugee families, ensuring clean, comfortable cooking and preventing wood use. Women no longer have to spend long hours collecting fuelwood outside refugee camps, where they were frequently attacked, and where there is extensive deforestation. The ethanol is produced from locally-available molasses, a sugar by-product which previously caused pollution.