Keeling Curve

Primary Project Category:

Secondary Project Category:

Year Project Originated:

Project Summary / Description:

Our driving ideology is that the global transition to zero emissions should not leave behind the poorest 1-2 billion people. Solar power is now the cheapest form of electricity on the planet, and we believe that micro-infrastructure such as solar electric cooking, lighting, mills, pumps, washing machines and many other technologies offer the opportunity to lift populations out of poverty in the most sustainable way possible, particularly focused on women. However, micro-financing schemes provide lending for only 1-3 year periods, whereas poverty-alleviating infrastructure requires 3-15 year loan periods. VIA aims to change investors' attitudes towards long-term microfinancing and to widen the range of solar and clean energy technologies.

Country or Countries of Operation:

Regions of Operations:

How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Not all of our target technologies reduce GHG emissions. Solar washing machines replace manual labour by women, but the lack of emission reductions should not prevent investment in modernizing the life of women all over the world. The single biggest source of emissions from the poorest 1-2 billion people is cooking. Wood and charcoal fire-based stoves emit 2-4 tonnes of CO2 per year, and around 500 million are in use by 2.5-3 billion people. Improved stoves only reduce this by 25-50%, but a solar or clean energy electric stove can reduce emissions 100%, and also indoor air pollution which is a huge health hazard. Based on 3-6 kg of wood use per day, households use 1-2 tonnes of wood for cooking and emit 2-4 tonnes of CO2 per year - across 500 million cookstoves, this is 1-2 Gt of CO2 per year, about 3% of all global emissions and as much as all global aviation or all global shipping. Other technologies like solar lights, mills, water pumps and power systems can also help displace kerosene lamps and diesel engines and generators, creating additional emission reductions.

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Sustainable Development Goals:

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

VIA projects have a goal to specifically empower women by saving hours of manual labour for the benefit of more productive work and time to support children‚ education. In the poorest populations, women spend a significant amount of time processing staple crops into food by hand, collecting fuelwood from forest, and washing clothes by hand. By offering affordable renewable energy-powered equipment, the time usually taken up by these tasks is freed up. Our pilot projects have shown that women convert these time savings into making new products, collecting extra food or natural items which they can sell. This offers potential for empowering women within their household and their community. 

This model is also perfectly tailored for climate-vulnerable and remote communities, since the solar-powered technologies are not reliant on the electrical grid and have remarkably simple operating methods. VIA and similar organizations are training village energy entrepreneurs to run local village utilities, coordinated by regional field staff and national-level managers. These technologies deploy rapidly due to their plug-and-play design at safe low voltages that even non-electricians can assemble in under an hour. In case of climate-driven natural disasters, such solar-powered micro-infrastructure is the easiest, cheapest and most robust way to replace traditional technologies. Additionally, VIA‚ innovative software-based mapping of remote, off grid households helps identify the populations which are most remote, having no access to the grid, and which are most vulnerable in case of emergencies.

Sub-Categories:

Mission Statement:

We invest in poverty-alleviating infrastructure for villages. Village Infrastructure Angels (VIA) is a group of concerned individuals and organizations that is helping rural villages in developing countries to access the infrastructure they need to reduce poverty and improve living standards. This includes helping 1 billion people gain access to electricity for the first time, agricultural machinery to reduce manual labour when processing crops by hand, solar electric cooking solutions, crop/food/clothes dryers, low cost refrigeration. solar washing machines for reduced labour for women, and water pumps for irrigation and drinking water. VIA actively develops and builds projects, having helped 50,000 people get electricity to date in 3 countries, and VIA also helps others to plan and execute their own projects, particularly with world-class infrastructure design software for minigrids and rural electrification.

Greatest Current Funding Need:

Sources of Past Funding: