Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus has been selected for 2010 SolarWorld Einstein Award. An economics professor hailing from Bangladesh, Yunus is being recognized for the idea of micro-loans. He has found a creative way of utilizing solar power in a cost efficient way to serve the poor. Apart from helping numerous people deal with poverty, micro-loans have been a crucial factor in setting up over 400,000 small scale solar power systems spread over Bangladesh. The Grameen Bank family, owned by Yunus has helped him utilize his idea of "social business" to deal with issues faced by the society. Grameen Shakti (GS) is a social business which was started in 1996 and had been focusing on rural areas devoid of the benefits of the national power grid. The solar power systems will allow residents to use electrical equipments, escape the health risks of kerosene lamps, continue with their work after sundown and establish night schools. Women trained in solar plant maintenance are provided with steady jobs. The savings accumulated from cutting down kerosene usage would allow the solar plant systems to be debt free within a couple of years. Grameen Shakti is directing their future plans towards setting up a million solar power systems at different locations by 2015.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/businesswire/2010/08/19/businesswire144079968.html
The president of United States, Barack Obama has declared that almost $2 billion in loans has been granted to their solar energy industry. This will be distributed among two firms, Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing to fund their projects. The first company has plans to set up a large scale solar power plant in Arizona. This would create at least 5000 new job opportunities along with fulfilling the power needs of over 70,000 homes. This project, named "Solana," located at Gilla Bend near Phoenix would cover around 1900 acres of land and utilize parabolic trough technology to generate a power output of 280 Megawatts. Around 1500 positions will be created during the development phase itself. The second company will work on high tech thin film solar panels, which have never been applied in commercial applications before. This project will be based in Indiana and Colorado, creating 2000 jobs during the construction phase and 1500 steady jobs in the future. This would comply with the president's statement during his election campaign about bringing up several "green" jobs. Both the projects are major steps towards competing against the Chinese solar industry. Even though these developments are positive, getting the loans does not imply success.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10500164
You’re 67% through this paper. Sign up to read the full paper.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.