As you should hopefully already know if you’ve had a look around our site or following what we do, through our phone recycling scheme with Vodafone, we have been bringing solar power to Zambia in partnership with our friends at SolarAid.
This is utilising the latest in solar technology to bring affordable, sustainable and clean energy to people of a country in which nearly two-thirds of of Zambians lived in absolute poverty and over half are currently unable to meet their daily food needs in 2006. The traditional fossil based fuels the majority of the poverty stricken country uses at the moment, like kerosene, are expensive and extremely bad for the environment as well as the health for it’s users and those around it. So, with our project, we aim to install 100 solar-panels in off-grid schools, which are not connected to the national grid of Zambia and operate without power, as well as community buildings like health clinics.
With this in mind, the recent article over at Wired.com, ‘5 Huge Green-Tech Projects in the Developing World’ sparked our attention and helps demonstrate that environmental challenges like power are global, including the developing world and not just the richest countries.
The article goes on to demonstrate how green and renewable energy the technology is picking up traction in developing areas of the world. Renewable energy is often domestic energy, so the country doesn’t have to buy or import alongside being environmentally friendly. This is good for countries that can’t afford to import massive amounts of energy from aboard and creates jobs as well as being environmentally sound.
So, we’re doing our part, and Wired.com presents the very largest projects that are due to break ground in 2009 or already have. Not only are these projects the largest in the developing world, but some are indeed largest in the entire world and will produce hundreds of gigawatts of power to developing nations all in a clean fashion. From Geothermal fields, to wind farms and solar thermal plants, people are waking up to see that the exponentially increasing need for energy in countries like India and China need to be served and there’s a need for it to be as environmentally sound as possible. Pretty incredible when you think about it.
Do you use any renewable energy yourself? Perhaps a solar panel or small wind turbine that helps power your home? If so we’d love to hear about it, and your opinions on the article in general in our message boards.
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