Director,
T.E.(Terry)
Manning,
Schoener 50,
1771 ED Wieringerwerf,
The Netherlands.
Tel:
0031-227-604128
Homepage:
http://www.flowman.nl
E-mail: (nameatendofline)@xs4all.nl : bakensverzet
Incorporating
innovative social, financial, economic, local administrative and productive
structures, numerous renewable energy applications, with an important role for
women in poverty alleviation in rural and poor urban environments.
"Money is not
the key that opens the gates of the market but the bolt that bars them"
Gesell, Silvio The
Natural Economic Order
Revised English
edition, Peter Owen, London 1958, page 228
Edition 11: 22
November 2006
Home lighting in the project area is usually fuelled by petroleum lamps
the average cost of which is about Euro (amount) per month, reaching Euro
(amount) per month in case of shortage of fuel. This outgo constitutes a
serious financial leakage from the project area which should be stopped. Some
families may be able to finance the purchase of solar home systems through
savings effected on the costs of petroleum and, for instance, batteries
consumed for radios.
The central project management (has, may) set up a separate cooperative
interest-free fund under which solar home systems can be installed and more
efficient radios purchased. (An amount of Euro (give amount) has been reserved
for this purpose under section 6.15, item 61501 of the budget for this
purpose). This is a seed fund, to get
the purchasing groups off the ground. It is enough to cover a first lot of (number) pilot installations to set an
example in each (tank commission, well commission) area and launch the system.
The rest of the money must come from the cooperative contributions made by the
users participating. (The purchasing cooperatives will repay the funds included
in budget item 61501 into the Cooperative Local Development Fund once every
family in the group has a photovoltaic lighting system installed. When this
repayment is made, the activities of the purchasing group will be automatically
terminated.)
Users will usually set up self-terminating
cooperative buying structures for the systems at tank commission or well
commission level. In such cases it is expected that all families served by a
given tank commission or well commission will participate in the cooperative. The well commissions will usually decide the
social priorities for the gradual distribution of these systems. They may for
instance decide priorities by drawing lots.
In that case, the speed of the distribution of the systems will depend
on the time required by the individual families
to reimburse credits received. A family accustomed to paying Euro 20-30
a month for lighting and batteries will be able to repay a system from savings
within about 2 years. A poorer family would need much more time. Where it is
decided that all families participating make their repayments at the same rate,
the rate chosen will be that affordable to the poorest family in the group.
Where a more cooperative approach is taken, the rate of repayment could be
variable according to the possibilities of each family.
Distribution of solar home systems is expected
to commence in the last, phase 4, of the project. Various activities currently
cause of financial leakage from the project area will then be taking place
under the local money (LETS) systems, and it is conceivable that (some) users
have more formal money available than before. Formal money funds may then be
available for contributions to buying cooperatives for solar home systems.
Where each family in a group formed contributes Euro 10 each month into its
cooperative lighting fund, one family out of 40 to install a system each 4-6
weeks. This would mean that each family in that tank commission or
well-commission area would have a solar home system installed within about 4-5
years after the start of the cooperative and the elimination of financial
leakage from the project area due to lighting and radios would become a reality
within 6-7 years from the start of the project.
Financial leakage through the use of
inefficient battery-driven radios could also be limited or stopped by the use of high efficiency radios
and/or mechanical wind-up radios. It should be possible to recover the cost of
the new radios through savings on batteries within one year.
Forward: 05.61 Institutional developments.
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