This document proposes a new approach called "Solar Forward" to increase access to renewable energy for communities living in poverty. It describes solar energy kits at different price points and innovative financial models like "Pay Forward" to distribute the kits. People who receive a kit must pay $1 each time they use it and eventually donate a kit to someone else. Gamification elements are added to encourage more donations. The goal is to empower communities by making them active participants rather than passive recipients of aid. Partnerships with NGOs and companies are sought to test these models in other areas and scale up the distribution of solar energy.

1. Solar Forward
New Approach for Sustainable Energy
to reduce poverty

2. Renewable Energy
• Access to energy should be a basic human
right.
• In many places with poverty, the people have
limited hours to work when they have no
access to light.
• Access to light should not be a luxury with the
lowering costs for renewable energy and LED
bulbs.

3. Who gets it first?
• With disasters such as earthquakes,
hurricanes and Tsunami, many people were
left without power.
• In many cases, rebuilding may take months or
even years, and the vulnerable ones lose their
livelihoods.
• Millions of people living in poverty in rural
areas also have no access to power.

4. The Situation
• NGOs and other groups like to support these
communities with Solar Energy, but the simple
solution is often inadequate.
• With limited budget and millions without
power, less than 1% of the people living
without power get these kits.
• Most agencies don’t contemplate the fact that
people need light post disasters.

5. Example (Nepal)
• Only 12% of country have access to electricity
through renewable means.
• The rest depend on diesel generators, and
have no access to clean energy for light and
cooking.
• With the earthquake and landslides, more
people are left without power.
• Kerosene lamps and battery powered lights
are expensive to use.

6. Example (Nepal)
• Government and development partners
provide financial and technical support, but
their limited funding and bureaucracy creates
huge gaps.
• Many policies made do not consider the
people living in poverty, who cannot afford to
take up the reconstruction funds which
require them to put in more money of their
own.

7. Solution (Nepal)
• Solar Forward is a social movement that will
spread the use of sustainable energy in rural
communities. This is an innovation model that
promote the use of solar energy, partnering
with charities and other responsible
companies.
• Solar Forward will also create more awareness
on solar energy and work with communities in
rural areas to increase income.

8. The products
We have co-designed three rural solar kit solutions
at three price points:

9. The products
US$30
• The solar kit consists of a 4W solar panel and 3 highly
efficient LED bulbs and a controller which has a USB
outlet and adapters for the user to charge various cell
phones. The kit requires 6-8 hours to charge, providing
1 bulb for 15 hours of energy. The storage is done
through high quality lithium polymer batteries of
2700mAh set at 7.3 V thus providing a total power of
more than 20 W. The solar panel will charge the
batteries in approximately 8 hours.

10. The products
US$55
• The solar kit consists of a 8W solar panel and 4 highly
efficient LED bulbs and a controller which has a USB
outlet and adapters for the user to charge various cell
phones. The kit costs about US$50 (arriving in Nepal)
and requires 6-8 hours to charge, providing 1 bulb 24
hours of energy or 3 bulbs 8 hours each. The storage is
done through high quality lithium polymer batteries of
5000mAh set at 7.3 V thus providing a total power of
more than 37 W. The solar panel will charge the
batteries in approximately 8 hours.

11. The products
US$100
• The solar kit consists of a 10W solar panel and 3 highly
efficient LED bulbs and a controller and a 12V DC
ceiling fan which has 5 USB outlet and adapters for the
user to charge various cell phones. The kit requires 6-8
hours to charge, providing 1 bulb 50+ hours of energy.
The storage is done through high quality Lead Acid
Batteries of 23000mAh set at 7.3 V thus providing a
total power of more than 167 W. The solar panel will
charge the batteries in approximately 8 hours.

12. Financial models
• The low cost kits are not the real innovation,
the real innovation to the access is in the
partnership and financial models.
• We are also currently looking for more
partners on the field in other countries to
prototype and try it.

13. Pay Forward Model
• People who can benefit the most economically
from the solar kit, by being able to work at night
are given a solar kit and a responsibility.
• They need to put $1 every time they use the light
to earn more money.
• 3 months later, $50 will be collected and another
kit will be given to them to give to someone else
in the village.
• The entire process of giving- earning- donating is
supervised thoroughly.

14. Solar Guarantee
• Integrating village into banking network.
• A bank guarantee initially deposited for the
villages with the loan period of 6-7 months. This
would also help to build a villagers credit history
and integrate them in the banking network.
• The bank guarantee once the loan is paid off is
used for a new batch of solar kits, in case of
villager/villagers not able to pay the loan the
guarantee is utilized by the bank.
• The interest rates under this model are generally
low.

15. Microfinance
• Micro financing amounts to Partnering/Working
with Microfinance organization that are
empowering people to learn new skills.
• Training is provided by partners or Microfinanace
organizations before loan is given.
• An initial loan is given to the people by a
microfinance company for the solar kit, the
people would use the solar kit to increase
productivity, earn more and pay back the loan.

16. Gamification
• The Solar Forward Model taps into the human
potential to become altruistic and their
potential to give back to the community and
help. To not make the model feel transactional
and push people to give back more to the
community, we will also be Gamifying the
Solar Forward model. This will potentially
encourage people to give more than once and
help create exponential impact of the project.

17. 1X 2X 3X
30$
unit
 Certificate of Pay
forward completion
 Video recording and
upload to the Solar
Forward YouTube
page
 Certificate of Pay forward
completion
 Name in the Solar Forward board
in the community building
 Certificate of Pay forward
completion
 Name in the Solar Forward
board in the community
building with their pictures
 Free Upgrade to 100$ unit
55$
unit
 Certificate of Pay
forward completion
 Video recording and
upload to the Solar
Forward YouTube
page
 Certificate of Pay forward
completion
 Name in the Solar Forward board
in the community building
 Free 30$ unit to provide to
another member of the
community
 Certificate of Pay forward
completion
 Name in the Solar Forward
board in the community
building with their pictures
 Free Upgrade to 200$ unit
100$
unit
 Certificate of Pay
forward completion
 Video recording and
upload to the Solar
Forward YouTube
page
 Certificate of Pay forward
completion
 Name in the Solar Forward board
in the community building
 Free 55$ unit to provide to
another member of the
community
 Certificate of Pay forward
completion
 Name in the Solar Forward
board in the community
building with their pictures
 Free Upgrade to 400$ unit

18. Dangers of Social Intervention
• Traditional charities treat their beneficiaries as
the “problem” and use guilt to get donors to
support indefinite giving.
• Passive giving can create a wrong mindset
where recipient think they deserve the help
and do not need to do anything to get out of
their situation.

19. Active Recipients
• If beneficiaries of aid can participate and give
back, they are part of the solution and with
their better understanding of the problem,
they can help many others in the community.
• No one can get dignity from receiving
passively.
• Active recipients can be rolemodels for others
in the community thus reducing the problem.

20. Other Potential Impact
• Instead of being passive recipients who get
something for free, they have the
responsibility to strive to work harder to give
others a solar kit.
• The group of individuals getting the most out
of this project would be students and people
with dual jobs.
• E.g. A farmer who may also be a tailor, can earn a few more dollars
a day working at night with light

21. Other Potential Impact
• Students in rural areas, facing lack of electrical
facilities have this general problem of not
being able to study once the sun goes down,
they have to be dependent on kerosene lamps
and studying for long hours under those cause
long term irreversible damage to the eyes.
• Fumes from kerosene lamps are not healthy as
well.

22. Other Potential Impact
• By understanding the dynamics of the
communities, other empowering programs
can be initiated as well, testing with various
communities and prototyping solutions,
gaining knowledge and data on which method
works which can lead to other innovative
solutions.

23. Call to Action
• Solar Forward has success in Nepal and we are
calling for other partners to work with us to
test these models with their communities.
• We are seeking NGOs working with post
disaster areas, rural areas without electricity
and other communities who need access to
sustainable energy to help us with the solar
forward program in their communities.

24. Call to Action
• We are looking for other innovators who have
empowering programs want to reach these
communities to work with us and collaborate
on innovative solutions.
• We are looking for forward thinking
companies and sponsors who believe in
prototying solutions and empowering
communities to support our programs.

25. Call to Action
• We are looking for change makers who would
share the word and help look out for other
supporters.
• We also want to hear your feedback on how
we can impact more people.

26. Contact Information
Feel free to contact me, Robin Low at
robin@doing.gd
https://www.facebook.com/socialhub/
Lets connect.