I have ideological problems with accion's funding itself out the poorest of mexico but its helped to produce a fine series on microenergy

Energy Links Podcast Series

The Energy Links Podcast, hosted by Paul Rippey, is brought to you by the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International and the Academy for Educational Development FIELD Project, with the generous assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Wallace Global Fund. Your comments and questions are welcome. Please send them to EnergyLinks2009@gmail.com. 

• Felistus Coutinho, Managing Director of Tujujenge Tanzania
  Felistas Coutinho is the Managing Director of Tujijenge Tanzania, an innovative microfinance institution that is providing loans for clean energy. In this podcast interview with host Paul Rippey, Felistus talks about all she has learned over the last decade of lending for clean energy. After some false starts, Felistus’ clients said, “Give us a vision, and we will find the means”, and so she learned how to give them clean energy, and they are indeed finding the means: demand is high.
  
  
• Potnis Nachiket, Executive Director of ARTI-Tanzania
  Six months after our first meeting, Potnis Nachiket, the Executive Director of the Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI-Tanzania), talks with host Paul Rippey about methane digesters. Paul was certainly convinced – he felt the heat from the flames on Potnis’s cooker. ARTI is promoting easy to build, long lasting digesters using household, school or restaurant wastes, which are much easier to build and run than digesters using manure. As always, the challenge with introducing clean energy is finance; the technologies are ready - now, where are the bankers?
  
  
• Dipal Barua, Bright Green Energy Foundation
  Dipal Barua was the Founding Managing Director of Grameen Shakti and remains a leader in partnering with microfinance networks for the distribution of clean energy products. He was the recipient of the first Zayed Future Energy Prize, given in 2009, and has recently founded a new company, Bright Green Energy Foundation. In this podcast, he shares his ideas on how Bangladesh can become a "solar nation"!
  
  

• Solar Lamp Entrepreneur Leonida Bironga and Western Kenya’s Lamp Owners
  This special Energy Links podcast features interviews recorded in the field, in Nyanza Province in Western Kenya, with savings group members who have purchased solar lamps. The lamps have been sold by one of the entrepreneur franchisees working for CARE to train savings groups - Leonida Bironga. Leonida confidently thinks she can sell a thousand lamps a month if she gets the supply, and that is about to happen. The future for village life looks much brighter all of a sudden in Western Kenya!  

• Roey Rosenblith, co-founder of Village Energy in Uganda
  Roey Rosenblith, co-founder of Village Energy (Uganda) Ltd, talks with host Paul Rippey about his start-up solar lighting company, which seeks to add maximum local value by assembling products in country. Roel also shares about his recent experiences as a passenger on NorthWest Flight 253 on Christmas day, which barely escaped being blown up, and reads part of his blog post on that experience, which appeared on the Huffington Post.
  
  

• Asif Dowla, Climate Change and Microfinance
  Asif Dowla talks with host Paul Rippey about the new paper, sponsored by Grameen Foundation and Oxfam USA, on Climate Change and Microfinance. Professor Dowla discusses how MFIs can “climate proof” their financial products, and of the importance of remittances and savings in a changing climate.

• Jacob Moss and the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air
  In this 13th episode, Paul Rippey interviews Jacob Moss of the EPA, who has led the effort to create the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air. Jacob and Paul talk about stoves, including some breakthrough models that might change everything! Check out the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air and watch a video on clean cooking at www.pciaonline.org.

• Nick Sowden of ToughStuff
  Nick Sowden of ToughStuff talks about their success selling solar lamps in Madagascar and other countries using existing distributors, and a business in a box model. He also talks and about, well, how tough their solar lamps are. But they still haven't put one in a blender... Get more information at http://www.toughstuffonline.org/

• Patricio Boyd, Director for Rural Operations at Emprenda
  Patricio Boyd, the Director for Rural Operations at Emprenda in Argentina, talks about how their MFI has installed over 1000 home lighting systems, all driven by consumer demand, and of their plans to expand in the region. Our first podcast from Latin America!

• Jay Thompson Interview
  In this special podcast, Paul Rippey interviews poet Jay Thompson, who discusses a poem by Robert Hass, the former Poet Laureate of the United States. The poems seems to have something to do with decentralized energy production in the developing world. Now, that was unexpected! Jay and Paul go on to discuss how poetry sometimes has a long term unanticipated impact on laws and attitudes. Give this one a listen...

• Paul Breloff, Vice President for Business Development & Strategy, SKS Microfinance
  The ninth in the Energy Links series, this episode brings the perspective of Paul Breloff, Vice President in charge of Business Development and Strategy at SKS Microfinance, the largest MFI in India with over four million customers. SKS has been working with a supplier of solar lamps, and making loans to end-users. Listen in as Breloff talks about the opportunity, SKS's motivation, and some of the surprises they've found along the way.
  
  
• Ibrahim Togola, Director, The Mali Folke Center
  This podcast features an interview with Ibrahim Togola. Director of the Mali Folke Center, Ibrahim has set up a for-profit company (Access) and a credit union (Nyetaa Finance) that work together to promote clean energy products.
  
  
• Gaurav Gupta of the The Climate Project - India
  The seventh episode in the Energy Links Podcast Series, this interview with Gaurav Gupta, Director of The Climate Project - India provides listeners with an inside perspective on climate change issues in India and efforts to address them. Gupta discusses his work supporting 120 civic leaders across the country as they promote the messages in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and develop tailored approaches to addressing them. Listen today to hear Gupta's analysis of the new technologies promising to provide renewable energy on a scalable basis and the challenges to achieving this.
  
  
• The Microenergy Credits Team on Linking Microenergy Loans to Carbon Markets
  The next in the Energy Links Podcast Series, this episode give listeners a chance to hear from April Allderdice and James Dailey of Microenergy Credits as they discuss their efforts to bring renewable energy technologies to scale at the base of the pyramid. April and James walk listeners through their initiative to link microfinance loans to the growing carbon markets through a low-cost, web-based platform that dramatically reduces the cost of accessing these markets.
  
  
• Patrick Avato on Lighting Africa
  In this episode of the Energy Links Podcast Series, host Paul Rippey speaks with Patrick Avato of the Lighting Africa Project at the World Bank. An expert in energy, experienced development practitioner, and prolific writer, Patrick offers listeners insight into this World Bank initiative to provide up to 250 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to modern, off-grid lighting products by 2030.
  
  
• Richard and Joyce Stanley on Biomass Briquetting
  The fourth in the Energy Links Podcast Series, this episode includes an interview and audio from a field visit with Richard and Joyce Stanley of the Legacy Foundation as they discuss biomass birquetting with Paul Rippey. The Legacy Foundation works with associates worldwide to expand the use of biomass briquetting as a source of renewable energy. Listen in and visit their site to learn more about this growing technique.
  
  
• John Beijuka on Microfinance, Energy, and Gender
  The third episode in the Energy Links Podcast Series is an interview with John Beijuka, a Ugandan consultant who oversaw a consumer acceptance test of solar lamps. He and host Paul Rippey talk about how solar lighting can become a gender issue!
  
  
• The Voices behind Barefoot Power in Uganda
  The second in the Energy Links Podcast Series, this episode includes interviews with Harry Andrews of Barefoot Power and James Wire of Linux Solutions. As always, the Center for Financial Inclusion's Paul Rippey hosts the discussion which talks about the renewable energy products under production and distribution by Barefoot Power in Uganda as well as James' work supporting enhanced access to "light throughout the night" in rural Uganda.
  
  
• Beth Rhyne on ACCION Energy Links
  The first in the Energy Links Podcast Series, this episode give listeners a chance to hear from Beth Rhyne, Managing Director of the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International as she discusses the motivation for the Energy Links Project. With support from USAID and the AED FIELD Program, ACCION is working in Uganda and other areas in East Africa to enhance access to appropriate and sustainable energy in rural areas. Beth is joined by Paul Rippy, Energy Links Project Manager as they explore the issues they have seen to date and the progress of an initial pilot that is putting affordable solar lamps in the hands of rural entrepreneurs and households.

Energy & Microfinance with Harish Hande

Sun, 02/17/2008 - 20:25 — FIELD-Support

do you have anything I could specifcally circulate on various collaborations your own market-making could be progressed by; I feel you ve a huge model that every serious partner of global grameen could know of as redesigning market systems to be bottom up seems to me to be pivotal to all social business work

if you have anything before tuesday night that would be great as I am visiting some of yunus paris partners including their central expert on social business funding structures from Tuesday night on for rest of week

MORE ON HOW YUNUS GOALS AND PARTNERS ARE DEVELOPING

sofia and I were at the launch of global grameen berlin november; dr yunus has now assembled about 50 partners in sustainability including 10 corporation ; 10 universities; various ngos that want to turn part of themselves into social busienesses (SB); various other people in different places who he wants to prepare social business festivals; in particular the largest regional event - 2012 involves londoners in staging SB events at same time as london olympics

yunus also has new book http://www.yunusbook.com/ previewing march on how he is positioning global grameen (and his maps of global social business networks and each one’s big goal for 2010s) as number 1 brand in sustainability partnerships

Other people I would particularly like to circulate your news to if you are not in direct contact are:

 

1 sam daley harris whose microcreditsummit is in april and where jamii bora’s financing of ecovilages is one of the top 2 local field visits

2 sofia http://londoncreativelabs.com/conversations/      http://cslondon.org and

paul http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8130130.stm http://www.ashdenawards.org

on london who connects more people who may ultimately shape Olympics festival and green than anyone else I can imagine

 

3 back in grameen, is someone like dipal fully uptodate on you – our 1000 yunus bookclub readers and 10000 dvd users are always looking to understand how dipal will eventually start targeting replications beyond Bangladesh of what looks like the number 1 method of solar and integrated community zero-carbon energies in microcedit world

 

chris

--- On Mon, 11/1/10, April Allderdice

Happy New Year from MicroEnergy Credits! 2009 was an exciting year for MEC and we look forward to making an even bigger impact on climate change and helping even more microentrepreneurs gain access to clean energy technology in 2010!  2009 Highlights MEC is now working with 9 microfinance institutions globally who are lending for clean energy MEC has helped enable 30,000 microfinance borrowers to access clean energy technologies including: Solar lighting in India and Uganda Efficient stoves in India, Mongolia and Honduras Insulated yurt coverings in Mongolia MEC launched Yurtcozy, our peer-to-peer climate change site (www.yurtcozy.org) Now individuals have a new way to help reduce climate change and reduce energy poverty!  People can offset their carbon footprints by purchasing a carbon credit at Yurtcozy which helps a microentrepreneur access a loan for clean energy.  By purchasing an offset, members of the Yurtcozy community can help a family in Mongolia buy a yurt insulation blanket, or a small business in India purchase a solar lighting system.

Sep 15 2009

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) will provide Bangladesh with technical supports for expansion of renewable and clean energy as part of its initiative on creating green jobs worldwide. In this regard, according to the ILO sources here. Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), country's lone manpower training agency, and Grameen Shakti http://www.gshakti.org , a subsidiary of Grameen Bank, working for expanding renewable energy are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today. Under the MoU, skill development training will be imparted to solar energy technicians of the state-run technical training centres allover the country. The ILO will support the training. The MoU is seen as a good example of public private partnership between the two agencies for promotion of renewable energy in Bangladesh, the sources said. Grameen Shakti has so far installed more than 225,000 Solar Home systems (SHs) connecting 12 to 15 thousand new solar SHs every month in cooperation with other 15 organisations. This has created good demand for new skills and opened up new avenue for creating a huge umber of green jobs for Bangladesh where the green job initiative was launched last year. Cited from article : http://www.energybangla.com/index.php?mod=article&cat=GreenPage&article=2101

http://www.muhammadyunus.org/In-the-Media/new-initiative-for-expansion-of-solar-energy/

as 6 most passionate green people I know outside of bangladesh thought you might like this communal click

Sep 15 2009

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) will provide Bangladesh with technical supports for expansion of renewable and clean energy as part of its initiative on creating green jobs worldwide. In this regard, according to the ILO sources here. Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), country's lone manpower training agency, and Grameen Shakti, a subsidiary of Grameen Bank, working for expanding renewable energy are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today. Under the MoU, skill development training will be imparted to solar energy technicians of the state-run technical training centres allover the country. The ILO will support the training. The MoU is seen as a good example of public private partnership between the two agencies for promotion of renewable energy in Bangladesh, the sources said. Grameen Shakti has so far installed more than 225,000 Solar Home systems (SHs) connecting 12 to 15 thousand new solar SHs every month in cooperation with other 15 organisations. This has created good demand for new skills and opened up new avenue for creating a huge umber of green jobs for Bangladesh where the green job initiative was launched last year. Cited from article : http://www.energybangla.com/index.php?mod=article&cat=GreenPage&article=2101

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) will provide Bangladesh with technical supports for expansion of renewable and clean energy as part of its initiative on creating green jobs worldwide. In this regard, according to the ILO sources here.
Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), country's lone manpower training agency, and Grameen Shakti, a subsidiary of Grameen Bank, working for expanding renewable energy are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today.
Under the MoU, skill development training will be imparted to solar energy technicians of the state-run technical training centres allover the country. The ILO will support the training.
The MoU is seen as a good example of public private partnership between the two agencies for promotion of renewable energy in Bangladesh, the sources said.
Grameen Shakti has so far installed more than 225,000 Solar Home systems (SHs) connecting 12 to 15 thousand new solar SHs every month in cooperation with other 15 organisations.
This has created good demand for new skills and opened up new avenue for creating a huge number of green jobs for Bangladesh where the green job initiative was launched last year. 

Cited from article : http://www.energybangla.com/index.php?mod=article&cat=GreenPage&article=2101

chris http://grameenenergy.com

also watching http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/100voices/

The British Foreign Commonwealth Office network in the United States recently launched 100 Voices, 100 Days in preparation for the climate change negotiations that will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. Each day for 100 days leading to the Summit, the site will feature a 100 second video or 100-word essay by key UK contacts regarding their hopes for the negotiations. 

The British Foreign Commonwealth Office network in the United States recently launched 100 Voices, 100 Days in preparation for the climate change negotiations that will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. Each day for 100 days leading to the Summit, the site will feature a 100 second video or 100-word essay by key UK contacts regarding their hopes for the negotiations. 

Please contact Carrie Annand if you would like to submit a video or essay.

regarding yunus youth ambassadors 5000 and green

green youth ambassadors  should be one of the big streams - where by a stream we mean groups of 10 we identify by 1 September  and involve in meaningful interactions that yunus wants progress; urgency enters into this as mostofa is returning to london from Dhaka soon and i am not sure we have made all the links and raised all the issues with dipal etc that we need to do  here are some of the lines of inquiry 

1 mostofa, our 69th yunus birthday dialogue european team were unlucky that most of us didnt get a meet with dipal barua ceo of http://www.gshakti.org  (Grameen Energy) because of yunus' change of plans regarding grameen veolia launch day; at our 2008 yunus dvd 10000 meeting, dipal was pretty explicit in asking us to develop ways that grameen shakti could start being an export earner; I realise from discussions with amy wilson who represented grameen shakti in usa before it was closed down that he may have revised his plans back to focusing on accelerating progress inside Bangladesh but there remain lost of questions- and that's just from my amateur viewpoint- I am sure Paul Rose could add ideas of more streams - mostofa will you be able to check some of these questions out with dipal before you return to london at end of week after your 7 weeks at Grameen HQ? 

2 I hear that ingrid munro's 2000 housing new town  Kaputei at jamii bora hasn’t yet worked out strong enough solar for everyone's needs- I believe that the solar per day is ok for some home owners but not for the premises that expected to operate certain types of business; I am wondering if there is either a knowledge exchange to be had directly between dipal's team and Ingrid’s or whether this is one of the topics we could get a segment of youth who intend to attend microcredit summit kenya involved with 

3 i wanted to understand whether there could be a youth ambassador and British council climate champions overlap "The British Council's International Climate Champions program engages young people around the world as communicators who will help to influence and educate their peers and the general public on the urgency of climate change.The International Climate Champions initiative is part of a range of activities within the British Council designed to build understanding of and drive action on climate change.In 2008 the program launched in 13 countries (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States) and then grew to encompass more than 800 International Climate Champions in 29 countries.In 2009 there are plans to expand to 60 countries across the globe, recruiting over 1,300 young people who are passionate about and committed to taking action on climate change. These champions are not only leaders in their communities but are also participating in international peer networks, both in person and online, to share ideas, projects and experiences. " more at http://www.britishcouncil.org/usa-science-projects-climate-champions.htm 

4 Obviously london is one of the epicentres of interest with ashden awards http://ashdenawards.org , royal geographical society's young prize winners, other interests paul rose or british council or of peter ryan's may link through as well as sofia and others finding that the grameen shakti film on yunus 10000 dvd was one of those young people most want to connect around; how do we get forum momentum around this  

5 connecting with Europe we were told by dr yunus  that environment was one of 2 areas that social business funds out of Europe’s would be prioritizing when these open in 2010 - I am not sure whether he implied the prince Albert fund in Monaco or another one would be first 

6 peter burgess, alexis and collaboration cafe teams joined with paul in hosting a new york collaboration cafe ; usa interests at a citizen level remain both huge and I think frustrated- for example obama promised a 5 million green jobs program but I have no idea how to map back where it is starting up ; again having a large contingent of green youth ambassadors connected across usa could at least keep this search going 

7 from visits to MIT thanks to encouragement from peter ryan, peter burgess and I discovered that typically Jan thorough April of each year reaches a peak in the mit entrepreneur competitions where green is always a very active segment; this is the largest and best organized youth entrepreneur competition I have seen anywhere; moreover with about 300 microloanfoundation bostonians and Mariah’s interests in open spacing large scale meetings in boston, we need a youth ambassador policy that maximises boston and green and entrepreneur competition connects; we also have various boston alumni among core yunus supporters including saskia and  Estelle 

8 over in Seattle we have founding co-member of grameen shakti on a goal of making a market of 250 million zero carbon households with her fantastic carbon offset partnership with microcredits model clarified  at http://microenergycredits.com

9 the princeton microcredit club - arguably the 2nd best student club model in usa - is headed by someone whose main interest is micrioenergy

10 one would asume that some of the thousands who facebook etc around thegreen children are interested in green

11 one must assume that the potential intersection of yunus youth and clinton uni around green could be strong- bill clinton interacts with at least 45000 facebook club membership by asking for questions to his favourite of which he makes a you tube response - recent green example: USA Filenote6 Clinton’s 45000 member facebook group May 19 were asked for their top 4 questions about a bold new Climate Initiative program — the Climate Positive Development Program, developed in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council aimed at reducing their greenhouse gas emissions to below zero, setting a groundbreaking standard for all cities to follow.

 

can people please comment on these and other possibilities in terms of what we need to do to embed this actively in youth ambassador 5000; and if there are questions to eg dipal what should we be finding out next

more mapping content of microgreen is at http://www.grameenenergy.com

Hot talk fall 08

1 Advance Microenterprsie field day 08

Microfinance & Modern Energy: How Do We Get to Scale?  Description: Nearly 2 billion people still lack access to reliable energy around the globe. Despite an increasing number of promising examples of increased access to energy through microfinance and a plethora of new, more affordable technologies, very few have managed to scale. Join us for a discussion aimed at overcoming this challenge, clarifying the role microfinance can play in doing so and clarifying what, exactly, does scale mean here. This event will provide an opportunity to hear from leading practitioners working at the forefront of the sector. Ellen Morris of Arc will discuss the past, present and future of energy and microfinance. Amy Wilson of Grameen Shakti will take you inside one of the few examples on the planet of an energy and microfinance program that has achieved scale. Leslie Meek of the Citi Foundation and Phil LaRocco of E+Co will give you an investor’s perspective on the issue and Beth Rhyne of the ACCION Center for Financial Inclusion will ground the discussion in the context of global trends including climate change and energy technology. Participants will work together alongside these practitioners to recognize the opportunities in front of us and identify mechanisms through which they can be realized. Speakers:·         Ellen Morris, Arc·         Beth Rhyne, ACCION International·         Leslie Meek, Citi Foundation ·         Phil LaRocco, E+Co·         April Allderdice, MicroEnergy Credits·         Ashis Sahu, SELCO-India

From:

Clinton cites Green Jobs are cited as the biggest growth area in creating jobs. Suzlon energy (led by Tulsi tanti ) is particularly noted for wind power initiatives in India and China