One in three people around the world have no access to any form of modern power supply; often relying on intermittent electricity or making do with none at all by using expensive and polluting fossil fuels such as kerosene for lighting.
While solar power is cheap over the long term, the sizeable initial outlay means impoverished families simply cannot afford solar panels. Energy In Common seeks to help address energy poverty through its new micro-financing service that provides loans to people in developing countries to buy solar panels and other solar power equipment.
Based on a concept made popular by Kiva, lenders can review requests on the Energy In Common site and loan as little as USD$25 to a "solar entrepreneur". Once the entrepreneur’s venture has been fully funded by the EIC community, the money is distributed. The loan is repaid in small instalments over a period of a few months up to a couple of years and is made available for the lender to either withdraw or loan to another project. Micro-financing is essentially a hand-up rather than a hand-out.
Energy In Common says that with the funding of every project, not only is life made easier and more productive for the beneficiaries, dependency on polluting fuels is reduced, greenhouse gas emissions drop, as does deforestation.
An added twist is the amount of emission reductions created by the entrepreneur are calculated and sold to lenders as carbon offsets. The tax-deductible purchase (in the USA) is returned to the funding pool to assist more entrepreneurs.
