Chipping in: Aust crowdfunding site to help bring solar to India slums

Pollinate Energy – a Sydney and Bangalore-based social enterprise NGO dedicated to using renewable resources to eradicate energy poverty in India – has joined forces with ChipIn, a new Australian website designed to raise funds for Australian non-profits, to launch a new clean energy crowdfunding campaign.

The campaign will start by raising funds to establish five new mini-franchises to sell solar lighting kits to temporary tent communities in Bangalore, India.

Crowdfunding, with a little help from the internet, is fast becoming a popular way to fund NGO clean energy projects, and for people to do their bit to provide free renewable or energy efficient equipment to developing countries. But, as Justin Guay notes in his story today on RenewEconomy, not all of these campaigns are destined for success.

Monique Alfris, a Pollinate co-founder, says the funds raised in the ChipIn campaign will go towards an initiative that aims to ensure success, and avoid problems like misused, malfunctioning and ultimately abandoned equipment. Each mini-franchise, she says, will be provided with a month-long intensive one-on-one training program, an initial round of stock and access to an ongoing support network.

They have their work cut out for them. Jamie Chivers, another Pollinate co-founder, says that of the hundred city slums they work in, only “one or two” are on the grid. A survey of their work area found 3,400 families without power in a 6-miles radius. And their urban market is booming, with a recent government census showing at least one in six urban Indians live in slums, most of which would not be connected to the grid.

ChipIn, which prides itself on “hunting out great organisations doing extraordinary things in our community,” and then making sure they are well run and all above board, says Pollinate is a great example of a scalable social solution worth backing.

“We think figuring out ways of scaling and distributing clean energy, particularly in places that rely heavily on coal and fossil fuels, is not only one of the most important problems for us as a society to be addressing, but it’s also one of the most challenging,” said ChipIn founder Prashan Paramanathan.

“One of the things we keep on hearing is that early stage seed capital is hard to come by for renewable energy projects in Australia. With a public that’s warming to the idea that we need to change how we meet our energy needs, I think it’s a ripe time for crowdfunding to come in to support these projects get off the ground. We’re hoping that Pollinate Energy is just one of many clean energy projects we’ll be supporting.”

Comments

One response to “Chipping in: Aust crowdfunding site to help bring solar to India slums”

  1. Kim Grierson Avatar
    Kim Grierson

    Thanks for the article.

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