Will you support this project?

But I don't know about these things, so I'm just guessing.

Another track is the micro-finance initiatives--here's the first link I found:

http://www.poverty-action.org/ourwork/microfinanceinitiative.php

...but $15,000--it would seem a natural research project to me, with a low overhead and lots of data coming out to analyse.  I don't know which universities or which depts.  Maybe a mix of anthropology, economics, engineering, materials science...

But hey, he's a prof at MIT!  Maybe he can't get hold of the funds--I suppose not if he hasn't got hold of them, but the finance-for-research project route would be the first I'd try if I had contacts.  The other route would be to get onto the established websites where those needing small loans can get into contact with those who are willing to offer small amounts.

Here's another link--maybe you've seen these all before!  If so, sorry!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grameen_Bank

A final thought is that a bank might be willing to sponsor the deal--good publicity for them, they may be happy to put the money up front ($15,000 = not a lot for a bank), with payment to come as and when (the publicity would be worth more than $15,000.)

Those are my guesses!

Certainly if you wish to raise the $15,000 by small individual donations, there are websites designed to bring donor and receiver together.  

http://www.kiva.org/app.php

July is only a few weeks away, though.

Not sure I'm helping, gmoke, but good luck to Robert with his project!

Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.

European Tribune - Solar in Zanzibar

Professor Lange is helping the village install more efficient stoves then certifying and selling the resulting carbon credits to buy small solar electric systems, a process already proven in Eritrea and Ghana.

This picture on wiki shows where the money is going so far:

There are big issues with the actual added reductions in countries like China, India and Brazil (and South Korea really should not be on there anymore).

Climex News Update

One in five carbon credits issued by the United Nations are going to support clean energy projects that may in fact have helped to increase greenhouse gas emissions, environmental group WWF said on Thursday. The United Nations runs a scheme under the Kyoto Protocol that allows rich nations to invest in clean energy projects in developing countries and in return receive certified emissions reduction credits (CERs) to offset their own emissions.But WWF said in a report that the credits are being delivered to projects that would have gone ahead anyway, even without the extra incentive provided by UN approval under the scheme, called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The report, prepared by Germany's Oeko Institute for Applied Ecology, said projects lacking this so-called 'additionality' help increase gases blamed for global warming by giving firms a spurious justification for continuing to pollute.

So what I'm talking about are more efficiency improvements on big industrial plants / power stations that would be made anyway, and deliberately inefficient initial construction of such to rake up credits.

Knowledge is important, certainly. What is important for the current exports of solar is for the people abroad to be able to service them and receive appropriate blueprints to be able to do so.

Your example of Africa developing its own solar technologies but not implementing them is a bit sorry. Can't say much more than that there is a big difference between developing technologies and putting them to good use.

I like your blog, too.


paul spencer