Detail Starting From Scratch   Oleh:  [s.n] Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine Dalam koleksi: The Economist (http://search.proquest.com/) vol. 402 no. 8774 (Mar. 2012), page s7-s8. Topik: Solar Power; Electricity Grids; Upfront Cost Ketersediaan Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: EE29.70 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada     Lihat Detail Induk Isi artikel Sunny countries are often poor. It is a shame, then, that solar power is still quite expensive. But it is getting cheaper by the day, and is now cheap enough to be competitive with other forms of energy in places that are not attached to electricity grids. Since 1.6 billion people are still in that unfortunate position, there is now a large potential market for solar energy. The problem is that although sunlight is free, a lot of those 1.6 billion people still cannot afford the upfront cost of the equipment in one go, and no one will lend them the money needed to buy it. Eight19, a British company spun out of Cambridge University, has devised a clever way to get round this. In return for a deposit of around $10 it is supplying poor families in Kenya with a solar cell able to generate 2.5 watts of electricity, a battery that can deliver a 3-amp current to store this electricity, and a lamp whose bulb is an energy-efficient light-emitting diode. The trick is that, to be able to use the electricity, the system's keeper must buy a scratch card--for as little as a dollar--on which a reference number is printed. Users may feel as though they are paying an hourly rate for their electricity. In fact, they are paying off the cost of the unit. Opini Anda Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini! Kembali

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