Energy is a major factor in prosperity. It makes our labour more productive and our lives more pleasant.
Without electricity, 1.3 billion people live in poverty. In remote villages, many burn wood and coal for cooking and use kerosene lamps for lighting.
Stewart Craine, through his Village Infrastructure organisation, provided solar power to remote villages on Tanna in Vanuatu to provide lighting, to mill crops, and to recharge mobile phones.
Stewart's lighting system comprises a solar batter charging station located at a convenient spot in the village, battery packs and LED lights. It can service up to 50 families. It can be delivered for $3 per week per family - the cost of the kerosene it replaces. Eventually, the village owns the system.
The projects were funded by loans and government grants. Melbourne Rotary committed $20,000 in loans and $11,000 in guarantees. This enables Stewart to prove the concept and to win a further US government grant of $1.75 million to expand the project.
The economic benefit to the villagers is that they can spend more time in productive activities.
