The Solar Solution

The Solar Solution

September 4, 2012

Sustainable energy has always been a target of International Development Aid because of its benefit for health, poverty alleviation and for mitigating climate change. Problem is,  “regulations and policies” have kept any widespread implementation from happening. Those are words from the World Bank, and what they really mean is that governments in developing countries aren’t removing enough obstacles for technology adoption.

Today hundreds of organizations and companies have moved to the consumer level to try and create change, and to make a little money. Most of it is directed at community solar power: small-stage solar generators and residential solar lights to replace the slow poisoning of traditional fuels like kerosene.

Sunny

Stubborn

This is a low-hanging piece of fruit because in-home solar light costs a tiny fraction (less than 1/12) of kerosene, which, in places with no access to electricity, disgorges 190 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. And breathing its fumes every night is like smoking two packs of cigarettes (also from World Bank research). It has become such a leading edge issue that even the business-oriented Economist magazine is featuring its vale. 

Culture Shift’s Firdaus Kharas has joined the effort with a series of public service announcements aimed at helping those without access to electricity understand the value of switching to solar lights. It’s called the Solar Campaign, and the first in a series of 15 PSAs is available (in animatic – 2D form) here. The main characters are Sunny and Stubborn, two animated competitors who use humour to illustrate the issue.There’s also some background on the campaign here.

Kharas says: “A campaign to create behaviour change away from traditional sources of light such as burning kerosene and cow dung towards clean, renewable, free solar energy could transform the lives of hundreds of millions of people.  Please join us in this effort to bring health, alleviate poverty and create a cleaner planet.”

Culture Shift will be starting a crowd-funding Indiegogo campaign later in September to try and raise funds to produce the spots in 15 languages for broadcast on TV and radio as well os on mobile-communications  platforms across the developing world. We’ll let you know when the campaign is up on Indiegogo.