Indian Solar Loan Program Offers Access to Light

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=53274

If you live in a rural area of southern India, two lights can literally save your life.

Just ask Vinoj Kanaya, farmer of silkworms who lives outside a small village located 250 kilometers from the new Silicon Valley of Bangalore. Like many people in developing countries, Mr Kanaya wanted something better than burning wood, dung or kerosene for which he paid a higher proportion of his income than someone in a developed country.

After he installed two solar-powered lights with the help of a solar loan, Kanaya says attacks by deadly cobras have gone down because the snakes are scared off by the brighter solar light. The lights are much cheaper to run than those powered by kerosene and there are fewer accidents and burns with solar lights. Kanaya says that both his helpers and his silkworms work much better without the smoke and fumes of kerosene lamps.

But with an annual income of just US $2,000 to support seven people, the initial US $300 cost of the solar lights was simply too expensive. Too expensive, that is, without an affordable loan.

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it has the perfect brightness for me and all I have to do is remember to take it outside to recharge