Did you know?

• 1.6 billion people live without electricity
• Half the world’s population cooks meals indoors on fires and stoves that are inefficient, waste fuel and create toxins that get lodged in the lungs.
• 1.6 million lives are claimed each year by indoor air pollution from open fires and stoves, 85% of which are women and children under 5.

Access to energy is an essential element of economic development and poverty alleviation, as it affects agriculture, health, education and job creation. Not only is energy a development challenge, but it also presents a unique business opportunity. Bottom of the Pyramid consumers spend close to $500 billion per annum on energy for cooking, lighting, communication and income generating activities.

Through capitalizing on the expertise of corporations, fellows and other citizen sector organizations, Ashoka’s FEC team is committed to harnessing new technologies for renewable and clean energy that help alleviate poverty, fight climate change, and exist in a financially sustainable business model that can be replicated throughout the globe. The goal is to transform the energy market, bringing clean, reliable energy to billions of underserved consumers.

FEC Hystra Partnership

In early 2009, Ashoka entered a strategic partnership with Hystra - Hybrid Strategies Consulting, a global consulting firm dedicated to combining the best insights and resources of business and citizen sector entrepreneurs to enhance and amplify solutions for social and environmental problems. Learn more here.

Ashoka and Hystra’s first joint research project surfaces the best energy business models operating in low income markets. Read the report.

Contributions from Ashoka Fellows Working on Energy

Harish Hande, India
Harish Hande is uplifting underserved populations in India by selling, servicing, and financing clean energy. In 1995, Harish chartered the Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) to challenge the assumptions that the poor cannot afford clean energy and that an organization cannot profit while meeting social objectives.

Since 1995, over 95,000 solar systems have been installed by SELCO with 400,000 people directly benefitting and tens of thousands more indirectly benefitting. Prevented emissions are estimated to be of 375,000 tons of CO2. With a staff of more 150, SELCO has twenty-five solar service center offices in the states of Karnataka, Andhra, Pradesh, and Kerala and has significantly expanded to service communities and institutional infrastructure as far as Sri Lanka.