32 Practical Tips for Sustainable Off-Grid Business
Best articles of two years Sun-Connect
Sun-Connect News publishes since 2012 practice-relevant articles from renowned in-ternational authors of the off-grid business. With more than 6,500 recipients of its regular newsletter, Sun-Connect News is one of the largest information media of this young industry.
32 articles were selected for the present anthology, covering the entire spectrum of the off-grid business. The contributions do not provide a comprehensive handbook, but give suggestions, hints and tips. Some essays are also challenging, stimulate in-depth discussion or opposition. And that’s how it should be because the off-grid industry is still young and cutting its own path. To this end, also the controversial discussion of different points of view is important.
CONTENT
The Market
1. No grid? No problem!
2. Off-grid electrification: USD 136 billion market potential
3. Electricity without the grid
4. What is the strongest driving force for off-grid electrification?
5. Independency from grid: the power revolution for developed and
developing countries
Customer Demands
6. The “we know what the poor need” attitude
7. Why solar lanterns cannot fulfill the aspirations of the world’s energy poor
8. How consumer values drive purchases. Seven key lessons learned from market
9. Don’t confuse what people supposedly need with what they actually want!
10. Poor people are not impecunious!
Business Strategies
11. The five big “A” of the off-grid electrification
12. The new phase in rural electrification: Holistic, hybrid, customer oriented
13. Burn your business plan! Tips for a sustainable solar business
14. Projectitis is curable!
15. Good news: the hype of solar lanterns seems to come to an end!
16. Four lessons Pakistan’s off-grid solar market can teach the world
Finance
17. Sun-Connect eG: a new cooperative to finance off-grid energy
18. M-SOLAR: Software to manage end user credits
19. Crowdfunding in the energy access space
20. The Availability bias of investors. Or: Why you shouldn’t use a map
of Hong Kong in Paris
21. Awarding of microcredits for solar products. Eight tips
22. Going “All in” on solar finance: How IDCOL incubates a growing industry
in Bangladesh
Customer Relations
23. The importance of after sales service
24. Customer relationship: practical tips for off-grid entrepreneurs
25. Non-replaceable batteries in solar lamps: planned obsolescence?
26. Customer’s trust: The real gold of a rural solar business
27. Dealing with solar products: 5 tips for user training
28. User Forums: A powerful and innovative tool for connecting
with rural end users
Impact
29. How to scale impact? Which impact? And how to measure?
30. Does off-grid solar energy really only have positive impacts?
31. Business for a social good? How many CSR projects don’t have
sustainable impact
32. Social impact meets environmental responsibility
