We work around the world, targeting those places and issues
that need critical attention, or where the effects of our
work can have the greatest, widest impact on agriculture,
education, health and micro-enterprise.
In all projects,
as part of due diligence, we must always take a look at
the feasibility
of obtaining electricity via an electric grid, and then
whether or not this electricity would be reliable enough
for a school
or a hospital facility.
In
this section of the site we have given you access to
our internal project database so that you can better understand
the breadth and depth of work on the ground and in the
corridors of power. Many
of the project profiles that you may read are written
by our colleagues out in the field. Reporting back directly
on what they are doing, how they are doing it, and what
they are hoping to achieve which you can support. And,
in some cases what has already been accomplished.
Almost every time a new project
is added or updated we list them here. You can browse the
complete list
of SELF
projects
and gain a better understanding of just how big the
solar electric challenge is and some of the things
SELF is
doing to address it.
For example,
take a look at what is happening in and for South
Africa. The most innovative aspects of
this project consist
of bringing together technologies and techniques
that have
been tried
and tested in the field, and provide children in developing areas the opportunity to link to other children
in developed areas, to improve
the learning experience, to broaden horizons and
to improve
the use of English
and the written word to learn more.
Benin |
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SELF, along with the Association pour le Developpement Economique, Social et Culturel de Kalalé (ADESCKA) and other local partners have proposed to facilitate the solar electrification of all 44 agricultural villages in the Kalalé District, Borgou Department. This project addresses the development priority area of agricultural development. The project also strongly supports health, education, general economic development and community infrastructure.
Learn more» |
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Burundi |
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Working in tandem with Partners In Health, Burundi-based Village Health Works is striving to address this crisis in Kigutu, in extreme southern Burundi, through the construction of a modern health center that will ultimately serve 60,000 people who face endemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.
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Lesotho |
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During 2008, SELF will again team with Dr. Paul Farmer and Partners In Health, this time to bring the benefits of solar electricity to four rural health clinics in Lesotho, at Lebakeng, N'kau, Bobete, and Nohana. With solar power at work, AIDS treatment at these facilities can begin to shine.
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Rwanda |
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The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) has been active in Rwanda since 2006, helping Partners In Health (PIH), a medical team headed by the legendary Dr. Paul Farmer, electrify regional hospitals and health centers in the southeastern part of the country.
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South Africa |
SELF has worked in South Africa since 1996. Initially we were advisors in the formation of the solar development agency, Renewable Energy for South Africa (REFSA), which seeks to promote the PV electrification of 2.3 million homes in the next 10 years. In 2000, we installed a fully functional lab complete with 20 computers and wireless Internet access for Myeka High School in Kwazulu-Natal. The school's dropout rate has declined considerably since the introduction of the computer lab. Since then, we have been involved in various projects in South Africa.
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Bhutan |
In 2003, SELF helped to advance the twin goals of improved living
conditions and environmental conservation by working with local partners
to bring clean, reliable solar energy to 151 Phobjikha homes, the community
health clinic, and the education center of the Royal Society for the Protection
of Nature.
Learn
more» |
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Brazil |
In 2002, Working with
the Associacao Amazonia, a group largely composed of indigenous Caboclo
Indians, SELF has provided solar power and satellite Internet access to
the previously unelectrified Reserve - a protected area in the Xixuau-Xiparina
rivers, Rio Jauaperi, Brazilian Amazonia.
Learn
more» |
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China |
In the summer of 1993, SELF installed 100 Solar Home Systems (SHS) in Majiacha, a remote mountain community of farmers in Gansu Province, thus launching the first-ever solar electric village in China. Following the success of this pilot project, which was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, SELF then helped form a non-profit affiliate in China, the Gansu Solar Electric Light Fund (G-SELF), to manage PV rural electrification projects in Western China. Learn more» |
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India |
In 1997, SELF founded SELCO- India, launched as a commercial energy services company and now operating in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. SELF linked-up with India's 5th largest bank to finance solar lighting for consumers, serviced exclusively by SELCO-India. SELF installed the first SHS directly financed by the World Bank's first-ever loan for solar PV,and signed up farmer societies to be electrified by SELCO-India under the World Bank/Global Environment Facility program.
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Indonesia |
SELF launched a 100-Household Solar Home System project in the West Java region of Indonesia in 1996 under the auspices of a "State Environmental Initiative" grant program sponsored by the Council of State Governments and US-Asia Environmental Partnership.
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Navajo Nation |
As part of the Native American Access to Technology Program spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, SELF completed its first-ever project in the United States in October 2001. We funded the project ourselves.
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Nepal |
SELF brought solar electricity to the village of Pulimarang in collaboration with the Centre for Renewable Energy (CRE) in Kathmandu, a non-profit organization working to promote decentralized energy options for Nepalese rural electrification. With support from the Moriah Fund, solar home systems (SHS) were installed in sixty-five homes and a community center in Nepal's first solar powered village.
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New Orleans |
In 2008, Brad Pitt convened a group of experts in New Orleans to launch the building of 150 green affordable housing to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. SELF is providing consulting services to the Make it Right project.
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Nigeria |
In 2001, SELF Executive Director Robert Freling and Jigawa State Governor Ibrahim Siminu Turaki began a dialog concerning the possibility of using solar electricity (photovoltaic) to power essential services in the far-flung villages of Jigawa State (in northern Nigeria).
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Solomon Islands |
In 1997, SELF completed a 50-house project in Sukiki on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, in association with the Guadalcanal Rural Electrification Agency (GREA). The following year, an additional 50 homes in the neighboring village of Makaruka were equipped with solar home systems.
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Sri Lanka |
SELF has supported solar rural electrification in Sri Lanka since 1991 through two non-profit organizations. It helped launch SoLanka Associates, a service-oriented, non-profit organization devoted to the promotion of solar photovoltaics in Sri Lanka. In addition, SELF organized a two-year solar "introduction and development" project in association with Sri Lanka's largest NGO and self-help organization, the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement.
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Tanzania |
SELF led a project to bring solar electricity to the Jane Goodall Institute on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The electricity provides light, runs computers, and powers a water pump for a tree farm and a refrigerator for storing precious research samples, vaccines, and snake anti-venom. In 2007, the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative asked SELF record to bring solar power to four rural health centers in the Masasi District of Tanzania.
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Vietnam |
SELF launched a first-of-its-kind household solar PV project in Vietnam in association with the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) in February 1994. he program has directly benefited over 1,500 people through the installation of solar home systems (SHS), and indirectly benefited hundreds more through solar systems in village community centers and village markets.
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In 1995, SELF completed its Uganda Pilot Solar Electrification Project in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, International. One hundred rural Ugandan homeowners experienced the benefit of solar electricity in their new Habitat-built homes, thanks to solar home systems financed and installed by SELF.
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Zimbabwe |
The Solar Electric Light Fund designed the UNDP/GEF Zimbabwe Solar Project for Rural Household and Community Use for the Global Environment Facility in 1991, which has grown to 9,000 households, spawning dozens of small solar enterprises.
Learn
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