Solar Power Homes In The Third World

Creating an intense demand for energy, the third world is waiting to be filled with the light of solar energy resources.

It’s more common in many areas of third world countries to have no electrical power than it is to have it. Even though solar energy is more than plentiful, most rural residents live in small one-room homes that have no source of electricity whatsoever. They survive with kerosene lamps for light and minimal heat. For those who have a little extra money, or bartering material, a car battery may be purchased to power a small lamp or heater. When the battery is depleted, it either has to go to a nearby village for recharging, or sit until there is money or someone to go into the village with it. Such meager resources create economic impoverishments of various kinds. Probably the most notable of the unavailable resources (especially light) is felt by the children, who are attempting to study, learn, and grow in order to have a better future.

Construction of a conventional energy grid, with a coal, gas or oil power plant, is something that isn’t affordable…either for the government…or local enterprises in third world countries, particularly in rural areas. Solar energy, however, is a viable option and something that really makes sense in several different scenarios. Solar energy, with larger solar power arrays can be built on site and used for villages in “on-the-grid” fashion, while individual panels can be placed on or near the individual homes of even the most rural of residents.

There are a number of United States charities, including the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, that are contributing heavily to worldwide efforts to bring clean, renewable energy to third world residents. The focus is bringing solar energy that will be used for access to water, as well as light and heat.

Another very involved partner is SELF, Solar Energy Light Fund. Their mission is to “provide solar power and wireless communications to a quarter of the world’s population living in energy poverty.” It’s a daunting mission…one they’ve not only taken on, but have been very successful at. Bringing solar power in western China to 1,000 households in fourteen villages, they have worked in many areas with local governments and agencies to help self-fund the building and distribution of small-scale photovoltaic systems. They have worked to help scattered Masai herder tribes acquire solar-powered telephones in Tanzania. They have installed photovoltaic systems in schools and clinics in many third world countries, and are currently very involved in a project in Haiti that will help bring solar-powered medical clinics across the country into being.

To provide fuel and shelter, many third world residents strip the available trees. In doing so, they’re minimizing what foliage is available for shade and shelter not only for themselves, but for the animals. For fuel, they often burn animal dung that would otherwise be used as a fertilizer. They achieve enormous benefit by trading these sources of energy for a few solar panels. Not only can they have power for radios or small televisions, they can use one or two PV panels installed to maximize capture of the sun’s energy and connected to a battery pack to provide year around heat and lights in many locations in the third world.

Walking many miles daily to the nearest village for water, rural residents have spent valuable hours that they can use more productively. Adding pipes and solar energy power pumps to homes or central village locations brings water directly to rural residents for both drinking and irrigation. This allows them to grow more crops and to create a more sustainable lifestyle.

Solar energy is making a difference in third world countries…for some the difference between living in poverty and living in abundance. With solar panels, many are now producing enough electricity for computers, radios and televisions. And they have the basics…water for drinking and irrigation, heat and lights.

Helping individuals and communities in third world countries build an infrastructure to support solar energy use is good…it’s good for them…and as it creates a better world…it’s good for us.

As all of us rely less on fossil fuels to support our basic needs, and more on renewable energy like solar, we will have more and more freedom…from energy barons…and from our own self-destruction through pollution and global warming.

Want to find out more about solar power information, then visit Timothy Peters’s site at: www.HomeSolarPowerExplained.com