A solar lamp to light up Haitian homes

Asia Times Online (6 August 2005)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GH06Df01.html

Aishwarya lights Africa with solar flairBy Sanjay Suri

LONDON - The sun is shining on this particularly globalized project: an Indian has been encouraged by a British award to begin manufacturing solar lamps in China with material sourced in Japan to sell to South Africa and Australia.

But until recently, Dharmappa Barki, who lives in Secunderabad in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, did not have the kindest things to say about globalization. When he won the Ashden awards, with a prize of almost US$50,000, Barki realized the difference between the globalized world of aircraft flying overhead and the dark world of many Indian villages below.

Barki has sought to dispel some of that darkness with a solar lamp he has manufactured, named the Aishwarya after India's best-known actress, Aishwarya Rai. He has sold so far more than 50,000 lamps produced at his company, NEST (Nobal Energy Solar Technologies). Aishwarya is not the first solar lamp, but it is a particularly efficient one. Priced Rs1,400 ($32), it provides three hours of good light a day. Its battery is guaranteed for three years and its solar panel for 10. The lamp, which has a bright and constant white light, has found many takers because it is backed by microcredit. Instead of a down payment of Rs1,400, buyers can pay Rs100 a month over 16 months. The Ashden award for renewable energy presented to Barki last month has done wonders for him. "There's been a huge interest in his product as a result of the awards," said Jo Walton from the Ashden awards trust in London.

"I am receiving a lot of new business inquiries," said Barki. Several new orders are in the pipeline already as a result, he said. "That includes three companies in Sri Lanka, one in Pakistan, one in Somalia and one in Australia," he said. These deals are all close to completion, according to him. But Barki has been negotiating one of his biggest projects even before the award. "I have a confirmed order for 1 million solar lanterns from South Africa over a period of two years. We are just working out the last details over pricing."

For manufacturing on that scale, Barki has worked out an agreement with a company in China. "I am getting a 40% advantage in manufacturing costs in China compared to India," he said. A difficulty has been procuring the silicon seed stock need to manufacture the solar panel on the lamp. For that Barki has entered into an alliance with a Japanese company. "This was crucial because there is a shortage of silicon seed stock around the world because of the very high demand and consumption in Germany," Barki said. "People like us are not getting enough supply, and we would never be able to meet demand without this product. Fortunately we have been able to source it from Japan. Our turnover last year was about Rs2 crore (US$500,000)," he said. Given the huge new orders in the pipeline, Barki is clearly well on the way to becoming the Bill Gates of solar lanterns.

Barki says he named his lamp Aishwarya because the actress is "a combination of beauty and brains". Many would only half-agree with him, but there can be little doubt that both Aishwaryas have found extraordinary success. The solar lamps provide a smoke-free source of light to villagers who have no access to electricity. The use of such lamps has revolutionized the lives of thousands of such people.

Barki set up his NEST in 1998, and has never looked back since he created his Aishwarya in 2001. His aim was to produce a lamp portable enough so that one could serve a whole family, and robust enough to withstand uses as varied as children poring over their studies, farmers milking a buffalo, or stallholders lighting their wares in the market. What began as a "made in India" operation is now set to acquire global inputs and find a global reach.

(Inter Press Service)