Hande Harish
Organization: SELCO Solar Light (P)
Year Founded: 1995
Country: India
Website: www.selco-india.com
Geographic Area of Impact: India.
Model: Social Business
Focus: Energy,Environment,Rural Development.
Social Entrepreneur of the Year, India, 2007 Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum Video The Innovation Harish has pioneered access to rural solar electrification for below poverty line families through a combination of customized lighting systems, innovative doorstep financing, and an understanding of market needs of different user groups. SELCO’s approach to the lack of working electricity through much of rural India relies on three tenets – the poor can afford sustainable technologies; the poor can maintain sustainable technologies; and indeed, one can run a commercially viable venture serving the needs of the poor. Specifically, SELCO: 1) creates low-cost customized lighting solutions for the poor. The core business of SELCO is the sale of PhotoVoltaic (PV) solar-home-systems that provide lighting but also are suitable for radios and fans. A system is customized and installed to customer needs and budget. 2) Works with banks to structure innovative financing for customers A standard four light system costs users approximately 18.000 Rs. SELCO works with banks and MFIs to create financing mechanisms that suit the budget. For example, a user will pay a small down payment and then pay monthly installments of 300 to 400 Rs over five years. The user can pay from extra income brought in from additional work made possible with the light and savings from eliminating costly fossil fuels with customized payment schedules. 3) Creates solar-related businesses and entrepreneurs In addition, SELCO further spreads the sustainable technology and creates livelihoods by creating ‘business associates’. These entrepreneurs lease solar powered lights to street vendors in the evening. Furthermore, while SELCO focuses on energy needs, its creative financing model can be spread to other sectors including housing, water, and so on where savings and income can be realized with viable alternatives. Background Around 57% of the Indian population does not have electricity and for many more, the supply is unreliable. In addition, those living on less than $2 a day in India annually produce close to a billion tons in CO2 emissions showing that the developing markets must be addressed with the issue of climate change. Strategy Rather than focus on a saturated solar technology production field, SELCO brings this technology to the Base of the Pyramid using financing mechanisms to make the technology affordable and productive for the end user. To do so, SELCO pioneers linkages between technology, financing, energy services, income generation, and quality of life. The organization runs its grassroots operations through 25 Energy Service Centres (ESCs). The ESCs market, sell, install, and service SELCO’s products. SELCO has an ESC within two hours of all its clients to provide timely servicing and improves the durability and reliability of SELCO’s products. This proximity also develops a relationship with the end user to allow instant honest feedback that improves functionality of SELCO services SELCO has also created 22 business associates. These solar entrepreneurs will purchase 40 to 160 solar kits including the panels, batteries, and lights on a five year loan from the bank. They then lease these batteries and light fixtures to local night vendors. The vendors normally spend 14 Rs a day for kerosene whereas the solar vendor is able to provide better lighting under safe conditions for only 12 Rs a day. Thus far he has reached 80,000 clients across Karnataka and Kerala and has recently moved into Gujarat. Solar electrification has led to everything from better education outcomes for children who can now study at night to increased livelihoods from nighttime vegetable vendors. The Entrepreneur Dr. H Harish Hande is an engineering graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and he earned his Doctorate in energy engineering (with a solar specialty) at the University of Massachusetts. Harish originally started his PhD thesis in heat transfer. When visiting the Dominican Republic, he saw areas with worse poverty than India that were using solar energy and decided to shift his academic focus. Upon returning to Massachusetts, he flung his heat transfer thesis into the river. He then started anew on solar electrification in rural areas and conducted much of his research in India, Sri Lanka, and the Dominican Republic. He is widely recognized as an international expert in the field of renewable energy.
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