Courtesy Eight19
In sub-Saharan Africa, 300 million people don’t have electricity. Those who can afford it save up for solar systems, buying them component by component—battery, light, inverter, solar panel—sometimes taking years to buy the cheapest, $50 systems. Those systems are still too expensive for many, who settle for kerosene lamps or do without.
Mother Nature Network reports that a new system makes solar power work much like phone cards—customers put money on “scratch cards” and use them to pay for electricity, which costs about $1 a week, as much as $2 less than kerosene. A company called Eight19 has created IndiGo, a pay-as-you-go solar electricity option. For as little as $10, people can get a 3-watt solar panel, battery, two LED lamps, phone charging unit, and module. People who buy the system can put money on their scratch cards with their mobile phones.
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