REEEP

Since 2008, Elephant Energy’s diverse team of international conservation experts and leaders in renewable energy development has worked to bring small-scale renewable energy technologies to rural areas in Namibia (see www.elephantenergy.org). EE’s first project area, the Caprivi, is home to ten community-run wildlife conservancies, which were formed for the purpose of thwarting poachers, increasing wildlife populations, and generating funds from tourism for rural development projects. People living in these conservancies struggle with animal attacks, drought, deforestation, HIV-AIDS, and a lack of access to education, energy, and health care. Elephant Energy’s work increases access to energy, a key component in development, through the use of revolutionary renewable energy technologies like solar-powered lights (www.bogolight.com), solar chargers (www.toughstuffonline.com), crank radios (www.freeplayenergy.com) and clean cookstoves (www.envirofit.org). In 2009, Elephant Energy’s Solar Light Project distributed and marketed solar-powered lights to nearly1000 households in two conservancies in Caprivi. Sobbe Conservancy purchased lights at a subsidized price and distributed them to members, and Wuparo Conservancy facilitated a direct sale of lights to its members at a cost of $7.00, or what a family would normally spend on candles each month. Local light monitors recorded baseline energy-use information and measured the utility of the lights in each household. Follow up surveys and focus groups confirmed the impact that these lights have on people’s lives. People avoided wild animals in the night; children studied into the evening; women felt more secure when traveling; and $7.00 was saved each month because candles were no longer necessary.

• Southern Africa