Director,
T.E.(Terry)
Manning,
Schoener 50,
1771 ED
Wieringerwerf,
The
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:
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:
Institutional developments.
List of drawings and
graphs.
Typical list of maps.
List of key
words.
List of
abbreviations used.
Documents for
funding applications.