Background/History of SELF

"Solar energy, when coupled with wireless communications, will enable rural and remote people around the globe to maintain their close communal ties with each other and with nature while still being connected to the rest of the planet. As the most decentralized and versatile of all energy conversion devices, photovoltaic technology paves the way for a truly global village in which the center is everywhere." - Robert A. Freling, Executive Director, SELF

SELF's beginnings:

The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1990 by Neville Williams, a former journalist who had worked as a consultant to the US Department of Energy during the Carter administration.

Acting as a catalyst, SELF provides technical and financial assistance for solar energy and wireless communication systems in the developing world. SELF has launched solar rural electrification programs and enterprises in China, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, the Solomon Islands, Navajo Nation, Nigeria, and Bhutan

Why SELF was created:

Two billion people attempting to emerge from centuries of darkness into an electrically lighted future will be one of the critical issues of the 21st century. Developing countries will produce the largest increase in greenhouse gas emissions. But for millions of people, there is a non-polluting way to get electricity - from the sun!

Solar electricity is the only proven sustainable means of meeting the electric power needs of the widely dispersed rural population of the developing world.

Seventy percent of people in the developing world still have no access to electricity in their homes, health clinics, or schools, and are completely isolated from the modern world's wealth of resources. Kerosene lamps, candles, and dry cell batteries are used for home lighting and radios. Health clinics have no means to power refrigerators necessary for vaccine and other drug preservation, and health care workers have limited access to modern medical knowledge and research. Children in village schools spend hours hand-copying notes off of chalk boards because their schools have no photocopiers; and without computers, these kids are trapped in the digital divide of information haves and have-nots.

Instead of waiting for the electric grid and telephone landlines, which may never come, rural communities can connect to the world today, thanks to a combination of solar power and wireless communications.

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