Capturing power of sun to electrify poor nations

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/capturing-power-of-sun-to-electrify-poor-nations/2007/07/15/1184438147123.html

AN American company is betting that the road to success goes through some of the world's poorest countries.

A group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students has developed a solar energy system that generates electricity, heating, and cooling — using little more than sheet metal and car parts and $US100,000 ($A115,000) in World Bank funding. They hope to turn their invention into a viable business, under the name Promethean Power.

"Can this be a multi-hundreds of millions of dollars company? The potential is there," said Sorin Grama, an immigrant from Romania who has just completed a master's degree in system design and management at MIT.

Mr Grama created Promethean Power's business plan, winning $10,000 in MIT's annual entrepreneurship competition.

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