GSV2 LSC-Report-VPA1 - MyClimate

trained to follow these steps:
Gold Standard Local Stakeholder Consultation Report
a) Educate customers about solar energy, products and adequate financing solutions;
b) Sell solar products by instalments or (discounted) by cash;
c) Install, operate and maintain customer’s solar equipment.
The ongoing local presence of the Solar Center staff will ensure a high level quality of
systems which can be used for many years. Old batteries will be taken back for recycling
and the replacement batteries plus spare parts will be provided. Our long-term objective
is to establish a sustainable solar business in Ethiopia.
To be in a position to offer the solar systems at affordable prices, the project is applying
for carbon credit funding. As NGO, we are not allowed to do any profit in Ethiopia.
Therefore, customers will directly benefit from the Sales of the carbon certificates through
lower prices. The name of the customer and the location of his household are registered
in a central database (Management Information System) and all information will be used
only for internal and auditing purposes.
The project “Solar Lighting in rural Ethiopia“ with carbon credit funding brings the
following benefits:
1) A better indoor air quality due to the replacement of kerosene lamps. Burning
kerosene causes smoke, which is responsible for millions of cases of asthma and
respiratory illnesses.
2) No more accidental fires caused by kerosene lamps, therefore no more self burning
and decrease of risk of loss of property.
3) Substantial improvement of the livelihood of users. Thanks to the solar light people
can benefit from the evening as it has never been possible before. People can use
the additional bright evening hours for their family, social relations, education and/
or work. The productive hours for dealers, handcrafts, and service providers can be
increased, and mobile phone charging services can be offered to raise additional
income.
4) Leverage of the rural income: From the day of implementation of the solar system,
running costs for lighting almost disappears. The pay-back is usually below 1 year
for portable solar lamps (like for the “Lighting Africa”-Product Award winner
“SunTransfer 2” lamp) and below 2 years for the solar home systems and the
lifetime is expected to be at least 10 years.
5) Decentralized alternative energy supply eliminates dependency to buy oil and
kerosene products and avoids long walking distances.
Therefore, by providing solar light, the living condition is substantially improved, which
can be the basis for an improved educational, economical, health, social and employment
situation in rural Ethiopia.
Gold Standard Passport version 2.1 July 2009
6