In the News
Investing in the sun
Civil Society; Jan 1, 2008
By Vidya Viswanathan
Summary/Excerpts
Fontana, the Taj Palace hotel’s coffee shop, has an array of frosted lamp shades on its celing lit by filament bulbs. Harish Hande looks at the ceiling with irritation. He’s just been declared ‘social entrepreneur of the year’ by the Schwab Foundation for spreading solar energy to villages in India. His company, Selco Solar Light Pvt Ltd, is worth some $ 4 million. “Why produce filament lamps? Why produce cars for one lakh? You have to be serious when you talk about climate change. If one of the most respected groups in the country does not get it how will anyone else?” he frets. Fortunately, all of Hande’s 85,000 customers in rural Karnataka ‘get it’. They have installed solar lighting systems. His clients include rural households, vegetable vendors, babas in caves, silkworm rearers,road-side restaurants, churches, temples, mosques, a residential school, the SOS village and a Tibetan settlement. “We promise service and finance at your doorstep,” he says. No matter the terrain, his technicians go on a motorbike, examine the house and install a solar solution. Selco has 27 offices in rural Karnataka, each manned by technicians and people who collect payments. They are hired locally and trained.
They offer a guarantee on panels and the battery. A four light system (with 7 watt CFL bulbs) costs Rs 14,000, while a system with three lights costs Rs 12,000. A single light costs Rs 5,000. About 48 per cent of his customers have a one-light system. “We look at a house and see what they want. In one case a villager wanted bulbs installed in three rooms. We removed some bricks from the ceiling and installed a one-light system. We also asked him to white-wash his walls,” explains Hande. When Hande, a PhD from the Univerity of Masachussets, started Selco in 1994 with Neville Williams who ran a Washington DC-based non-profit organisation, he installed the first 200-250 systems himself with some help from a TV technician who still works for him. “That gains respect and no technician can tell me this can’t be done,” says Hande. Hande spent three years convincing a banker that solar systems could generate income. He realised that regional rural banks like the Karnataka Vikas Bank and the Pragati Grameen Bank were rich, and that bankers were a powerhouse of knowledge.
© 2007 Civil Society
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