Over the past four years, a thriving market for household solar panels has sprung up in India, with the help of a United Nations programme which assists local banks in offering cheaper loans for the panels.Since 2003, the $1.5 million programme has helped 16,600 Indians living in the southern state of Karnataka buy solar power systems for their homes and small businesses.
Jyoti Painuly, senior energy planner for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), lists examples of people who have profited from the scheme: “There is the food vendor who told us ‘Now my food doesn’t smell of kerosene, so I sell more of it,’ and the tailor who said that he can work a few extra hours during the day, bringing in more money.”
The project began by selecting five vendors of household solar panel systems in Karnataka. With funding from the UN Foundation and the Shell Foundation, UNEP helped train the vendors, who were having limited success selling their wares in India – despite some of them having businesses exporting to Germany.
Tags: environment, india, solar power, technology
India has the chance to really lead the way as a global solar example.