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Introduction:
As we enter the new millennium, with our globe-spanning communication and computer networks, there are still some two billion people on the planet without access to electricity. While the rest of us log-on to the Internet to obtain information, exchange emails with our friends and colleagues, and purchase goods online, these two billion people, mostly living in rural parts of the developing world, cannot turn on a light bulb at night. They are being left further and further behind a digital divide that threatens to polarize humanity into a world of information haves and have-nots.
How are these two billion people to emerge from centuries of darkness into an electrically lighted and tele-connected future? A solution is at hand. Using a combination of solar energy and wireless communications technology, rural and remote parts of the world have the opportunity to leapfrog sustainably into the 21st century. Once compelled to migrate to over-crowded towns and cities in search of economic opportunity, rural villagers may now choose to stay close to home, where they are more closely connected to each other and to nature. It's more than a question of connectivity. For many reasons, it is time we look to the sun.
The Environment
Faced with the reality of global warming, governments are under pressure to reduce CO2 emissions that are produced from the burning of fossil fuels.
Stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems, which convert sunlight into electricity without emitting greenhouse gases, can be deployed quickly in any village in the world, no matter how isolated or remote. Rural households, schools, clinics, and community centers now have the capacity to generate clean, electric power by installing solar panels on their own rooftops.
Health
Fumes from kerosene lamps in poorly ventilated houses are a serious health problem in much of the world where electricity is unavailable. It is estimated that people who rely on kerosene inhale the equivalent of two packs of cigarette smoke per day. In addition, kerosene lamps are a serious fire hazard in the developing world, killing and maiming tens of thousands of people each year. Solar electric light is entirely safe, and improves the indoor air quality of rural households that previously relied upon kerosene.
The use of solar energy can vastly improve rural health care programs by providing power for water purification, clinic lighting, vaccine refrigeration, medical equipment, and two-way radio communications with the outside world. Telemedicine applications also become a viable option with the deployment of solar-powered wireless links to the Internet.
Literacy and Education
Electric light helps to increase literacy because people can read after dark more easily than they can by candlelight or a kerosene lamp. Schoolwork improves and eyesight is safeguarded.
Solar energy can electrify rural schools, not just for lighting purposes, but also to power computers and other electronic equipment.
 The implications of bringing computers into rural classrooms, and wirelessly linking those classrooms to the rest of the world, are profound. A new universe of information and educational resources opens up. Students and teachers become excited as new programs in distance learning are introduced. Electronic friendships are established with people from far-away lands. Music and dance are shared. Cultural diversity is strengthened, even as the world becomes smaller.
Economic Development
Solar lighting empowers rural families by allowing them to engage in productive activities at home during evening hours.
 In addition, solar electricity can be used to power various types of village micro-enterprise. Solar-powered water pumping and irrigation lead to increased agricultural productivity. Electric sewing machines, ice-making and storage, battery charging, and a wide variety of cottage industries can be powered with modest amounts of solar electricity.
With the introduction of wireless telephony, rural villages are further empowered economically. Up-to-date knowledge of farming techniques and market prices helps farmers to obtain higher value for their produce. Access to the Internet offers even more far-reaching possibilities. By taking digital photographs of locally made arts and crafts, and uploading these images onto a website, village artisans can make their goods directly available to a worldwide audience. Cultural products such as music are especially well-suited to village-based ecommerce since they can be transmitted electronically without having to deal with the cost, logistics, and delay of physical transportation. Solar-powered connectivity provides a conduit through which information as well as trade and commerce may flow to and from rural parts of the world previously isolated and cut off.
The Role of SELF
Founded in 1990 as a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the use of solar energy in the developing world, the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) has launched solar household lighting projects in eleven countries: China, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa and the Solomon Islands. Through these projects, SELF has demonstrated that small, decentralized photovoltaic systems can affordably bring solar light and power to rural households living beyond the reach of an electric grid.
SELF is ready to push the envelop one step further. Solar electricity, especially when combined with wireless communications, can facilitate dramatic improvements in the overall health, education, and economy of rural villages throughout the world. SELF looks forward to new demonstration projects in which solar energy is used to provide power to village schools, health clinics, micro-enterprises, and telecenters. SELF will then communicate the results of these projects, and lessons learned, to a worldwide audience through a variety of print and electronic media.
Working with other NGOs as well as corporations, SELF -- through a series of on-the-ground pilot projects -- will create new models of village-based micro-enterprise that can be replicated and expanded on a commercially viable basis. SELF's long-standing practice of promoting local self-reliance will be further enhanced by the introduction of village-owned businesses that generate income for the community.
Conclusion
We live in a world dominated by a "center-periphery" consciousness. Access to energy, communications, information, and entertainment is concentrated in urban areas that are connected to centralized power grids. Remote villages are deprived of basic energy services and communication access.
When solar energy, which by its very nature is decentralized, is combined with wireless communications technology, villages need no longer be cut off and isolated just because of their physical remoteness.
SELF recognizes the need to preserve biological and cultural diversity in the face of increasing globalization. Perhaps the ultimate advantage of harnessing sunlight is the opportunity to generate clean power anywhere on the planet, in a way that promotes local self-reliance and cultural autonomy, even as rural communities become more integrated into the global economy. The marriage of solar energy and wireless communications makes possible a world in which "the center is everywhere".
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SOLAR BENEFITS:
The Environment
Health
Education
Economic Development
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