Skipping Straight To Solar In Africa

Much of the African continent offers a huge development opportunity across industries, but it also offers a way to sidestep or skip over some technologies that are environmentally harmful. Skipping fossil fuels and going straight to solar grids is one particularly enticing example, and American start-ups are hot on the trail.

Bill McKibben reports:

“There are about as many people living without electricity today as there were when Thomas Edison lit his first light bulb.”

Instead, many families in underdeveloped regions rely on kerosene and other costly and dangerous fuel sources. Laying solar energy grids across these areas could save consumers a lot of money and make investors billions.

But there are many obstacles: for one, the way money circulates in some countries makes infrastructure hard to implement in the same ways it’s built in North America, for instance. Where bank accounts aren’t common, would-be energy providers need to come up with creative solutions for payment plans.

One company called Off-Grid actually offers scratch-off cards that can be purchased at kiosks in Ghana, which users can buy and get credit to top up their accounts. With some luck on top of the financial incentive, there is real potential for development that benefits both communities and the planet.