What is the secret ingredient in the success of Selco’s sustainable solar energy use model?
Actually, there is really no secret ingredient. For many years it was the passion of the employees to prove that a sustainable model existed while serving the poor. That passion mixed with a little bit of common sense helped Selco to create a model that we feel is the right way to do it. Street vendors in many small towns spend Rs 15-18 daily to use kerosene lamps during the busy shopping hours in the evening. And this consumes a substantial part of their daily earnings. In a pilot project done in Hassan town of Karnataka, Selco enthused a local auto rickshaw driver to turn an energy entrepreneur. The driver was given a solar system at concessional financial terms. He uses this to charge conventional batteries which are rented to the street vendors in the evenings for Rs 8 per day, which is half the cost of kerosene lamps. This enabled vendors to make substantial savings. In Hassan, this particular driver has more than 115 vendor-clients now. The Hassan model has been repeated in a lar
