SunEdison through its global wing SunEdison Social Innovations will commence an initiative to provide electricity for 20 million by 2020 all over the world.
“We are committing to bringing electricity to one million people by the end of 2015, and are targeting to help 20 million people gain access to electricity by 2020,” said Ahmad Chatila, president, CEO, SunEdison.
The Social Innovations team has already helped more than 250,000 people worldwide through the strategic partnerships focused on three key areas such as new business models, new technology, and charitable donations.
In the business model, SunEdison adapts various ways to provide electricity to people through a series of partnerships and business schemes.
For Example, in India SunEdison and Omnigrid Micropower Company (OMC) are electrifying rural villages by pairing with commercial solar customers and local villagers.
They are developing additional mini grid capacity that can be sold to the local villagers. The target aims 5,000 solar power plants over the next 5 years, helping more than 10 million people.
In Nepal, SunEdison is partnering with SunFarmer to provide solar systems to remote hospitals, health clinics, and schools.
Another newly introduced five to seven year rent-to-own loan program aims not so well off organizations by spreading the cost of the solar system over a longer term, which further reduces the cost of solar energy considerably.
The program has benefited 250,000 people so far, aiming to provide electricity to 7 million people by 2020.
The new technologies developed by SunEdison to achieve the target set include Outdoor Microstation.
This is a stand-alone power generation unit that provides renewable electricity for off-grid applications in remote areas.
These systems can be deployed within a day providing power to households, small businesses, public places, clinics and health centers, water pumps and to telecommunications systems.
The 3500 unit can power a community of up to 25 households including street lighting for 5 hours each night and the 650 volt-amperes unit can power up to 10 households for five hours each night.
The system needs low maintenance and operates even on extreme weather conditions.
As part of the charitable initiatives, SunEdison Foundation focuses on providing clean energy solutions for health clinics and schools.
So far, they have donated and installed 344 KW of solar systems for 28 schools and clinics, benefiting more than 16,000 people.
The latest donation is a 5.2 KW system for a school in Gilutongan island of Philippines.
In addition, the foundation recently donated to the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Gujarat to purchase around 200 solar water pumps.
Sabeena Wahid
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