On January 23, Haitian President Martelly announced a new rural electrification program aiming to electrify 200,000 households in the next two years. The program, named “Ban m limyè, Ban m lavi” (BLBL, translated as “Give me light, give me life”) envisions a portfolio of approaches to electrification, including opening up access to end-user credit for small solar home systems.
Dr. René Jean-Jumeau calls for bold innovation to electrify 200,000 Haitian homes in two years
While details have yet to be defined, the announcement is a clear signal that the highest levels of Haitian government are prioritizing energy access. Dr. René Jean-Jumeau, Secretary of State for Energy, pointed out that the state-owned national utility, EDH, recently celebrated 40 years of operation, yet less than 30% of the Haitian population has access to electricity. “We cannot wait another 40 years to get another 30% electrified,” Jean-Jumeau said.
Both Jean-Jumeau and Martelly drew clear lines between economic growth and access to energy and called for innovation and public-private partnerships to fill the gaps currently left by EDH.
Held on the weekend of November 18th, 2011, TEDxPittsburgh:Power explored power as a concept from the subatomic scale to the cosmic, and with practical and philosophical implications. As EarthSpark’s Founder and Executive Director, Dan’s talk focuses on the core problem being addressed by EarthSpark in Haiti: energy poverty. Describing the realities of living in energy poverty, Dan also identifies the two biggest challenges to ending it: the lack of physical and financial access to clean energy products. Analogies are drawn to the telecommunications and retail industries - both of which were innovators in providing their customers with access. Telecoms had to figure out how to extend the “last mile” of phone lines to their most distant markets, and retailers like Bloomingdales had to figure out how to provide credit to their customers so they could afford better products.
EarthSpark is innovating on these fronts in Haiti to provide customers with physical and financial access to clean energy products. Our retailers reach Haitians in rural areas and sell solar products to them bundled with micro-loans backed by Fonkoze, a Haitian micro-lender, and on “rent-to-own” terms for less expensive products like efficient cookstoves.
As Dan mentions in his TED talk, Haitians living in the United States and Canada send $1.6 Billion to their friends and family in Haiti every year. This prompted us to think about how to channel those dollars directly into clean energy products. Today we are launching www.enejipwop.com, the first e-commerce site marketed to Haitians living in the United States and Canada to purchase clean energy products like solar home systems for immediate delivery to their friends and family in Haiti. Each sale is fulfilled by one of EarthSpark’s Enèji Pwòp entrepreneurs in Haiti, so each sale grows a local business. We urge you to take a look at the site, and share it with your friends in the Haitian community in the United States and Canada. We’re open for business!
We come from very different places and backgrounds, have diverse interests and check in at extraordinarily divergent heights. We also each have great friends who independently and fortuitously introduced us to EarthSpark International. We are both transitioning from one career path to another (Alki was in Nuclear Recycling in France, Greg was in Sports Retail in South Africa and Germany), and were excited to take some time to volunteer with the dynamic team that is EarthSpark in its operating base in beautiful Haiti. Our goal was to help professionalize EarthSpark’s retail business practices and lay the groundwork for its impending expansion.
It’s difficult to overstate how important the experience of being on the ground was to our understanding of the work this organization does, and the constraints that it exists within. It’s all too easy to forget the inherent difficulties of life and business from the blessed ease of home. The challenges of a deficient infrastructure, nonexistent public transportation and insufficient access to information are so much more apparent in person. For instance, we didn’t get to Les Anglais until four days after we planned. Why? Because there was a storm that flooded the river and washed away the road from Port-a-Piment to Les Anglais – which by the way, happens every time there’s a big storm. Even days after the rain had stopped when we finally made our way to Les Anglais by a road so bumpy only big cargo trucks could manage (on which we were lucky to find a ride instead of doing the 10-mile hike by foot as previously planned), we had to wade hip-level deep with our bags on our heads to cross the football field-length river. Let’s just say that “supply chain difficulties” takes on a whole new meaning now.
We’ve both been lucky enough to have previously spent time in areas of varying levels of development, but the challenges we were introduced to in Haiti were of a different scope than we had known. We were both humbled and inspired by this. The challenges EarthSpark faces are real and they are many, but they are also interesting and they are (hopefully, eventually) solvable.
The staff of the Les Anglais Magazen Enèji Pwòp is par for the course when it comes to the people affiliated with EarthSpark; passionate, energetic and fun. All were caring and gracious in helping the two of us understand their community, business and goals. The management team of Jean Noel and Jacquelin, as well as Pedro, the store’s technician and one of its sales agents, were excellent guides to their town, and truly ambassadors for it.
In getting to know the products and their true benefits we were able to be much more effective in improving EarthSpark’s back-end plans and processes. By visiting local homes and businesses, the need, use and effectiveness of the products came to life in front of our eyes. Going local was the difference between thinking we understand something in theory, and realizing that we can only ever truly strive to understand part of a practice.
Walking down the pitch black streets of town at 7pm, it’s hard to not wonder when the power will be turned back on. It’s easy to forget that the blackout is by no means temporary - it is the everyday reality. When you see children sitting outside under streetlights, or any other sources of light they can find, squinting over books, the deeply unfair realities of their situation refuses to be ignored. Once you’ve seen it firsthand, finding a sustainable way to help these kids, and the others like them who will follow becomes no longer a choice but an obligation.
We were lucky and pleased to be able to meet a host of impressive EarthSpark colleagues and collaborators. From the partners at Digicel to the new clients in the back of Tap Taps, people are engaged and excited to be working with EarthSpark. One of the more exhilarating moments of the trip was learning that Rene Jean-Jumeau, a good friend of the organization and a truly inspiring man, who we were privileged to meet, had been named Haiti’s first Secretary of State for Energy. How fortuitous to be working towards sustainable clean energy in Haiti at a time when the Government is acknowledging its importance and beginning to make strides in the right direction.
While our time in Haiti was short, it was most definitely meaningful. Our hope was to help the organization and of course to pick a little knowledge up along the way. As is to be expected, we got the lion’s share of the deal. There’s just no way that we could give to EarthSpark in equal measure to what we received. With this in mind, we have both decided to stay as actively involved as we can from afar, and we’re working on finding ways to get back down to Haiti and see if we can’t even out the ledgers a little bit!
All the best from Phoenix, Boston, Les Anglais and everywhere else in between,
Alki & Greg
For more reading related to Alki and Greg’s experience with EarthSpark in Haiti, check out their personal blog posts:
If anyone is looking for a fun and thoughtful present to give for the holidays, we can recommend the three solar/EarthSpark gift ideas below. EarthSpark is expanding our work in Haiti, and we have partnered with some innovative groups to try to offer holiday presents that are both great for our supporters and meaningful to our work.
1. Your Own Solar Light Bulb: Buy One, Give One.
Here’s your chance to have your very own solar product while also giving back. The solar light bulb is fun and elegant and a great entry-level solar product for anybody who is energy-consicous or gadget minded. When purchased with the 25% off “earthspark” code at the bulb manufacturer’s website, they will also donate a solar bulb to EarthSpark’s Enèji Pwòp clean energy entrepreneurs in Haiti. The solar lights change lives here, replacing kerosene lamps that are smoky, dim, and expensive, and enabling families to save money and improve their health and ability to study and work at night.
2. Enter the quantity of solar light bulbs you would like to purchase.
3. Enter the coupon code “earthspark” to receive 25% off your order. The price of each bulb will be $15. For every bulb you purchase, an additional bulb will be donated to EarthSpark at no additional charge.
2. Team Up with Linkin Park’s Music for Relief.
If there are any Linkin Park fans on your list, you can also support EarthSpark’s work by donating through the band’s new site www.powertheworld.org. Donations through that site support EarthSpark’s work in Haiti and are rewarded with a Linkin Park e-card to send to fans for the holidays.
And finally, if a Haitian hand-made “gift in honor of” card would be best for your friends or loved ones, we would be happy to send a hand written note on one of the beautiful banana leaf cut-out cards made in Haiti that we have adopted as the EarthSpark stationary. It’s possible to donate through paypal directly at http://earthsparkinternational.org/support.html. Following your donation, please just email info@earthsparkinternational.org to let us know who should receive the card and what it should say.
All the best for a happy, healthful, and meaningful 2012 from the EarthSpark team.
Jean Noel Paget of the Clean Energy Store in Les Anglais shows the new store display
When stories are told in Haiti, often the storyteller warms up the audience with a series of well-know riddles.
“Krik!” the storyteller yells to get everyone’s attention.
“Krak!” the audience - or those paying attention - will yell back to show they are ready for the story.
Gathering more interest, the storyteller often launches riddles. A popular one: “Piti piti, plen kay” (Very small, fills the house)?
“Lanp!” (Lamp!)
The Enèji Pwòp team has a variation on this well-known riddle. “Piti piti plen kay modèn?” (Very small, fills the house, is modern?)
And the answer? An Enèji Pwòp Lamp, of course. This draws smiles and nods. “Aaaaah! Lanp Enèji Pwòp,” people agree, “Lanp modèn.”
The Enèji Pwòp-branded Nokero N200s have arrived, and customers love them. While a typical kerosene lamp costs 200 gourdes to buy and 10 gourdes/night to operate, this Enèji Pwòp lamp costs 500 gourdes to buy and then needs no fuel, just exposure to sun to recharge the battery. Not only are families getting better light, reducing their exposure to dirty smoke and fire hazard, they are saving huge amounts of their household budgets.
EarthSpark’s first branded product, the Enèji Pwòp branded Nokero solar light bulbs, are ready to ship. They will be reaching our partners in Haiti and available in a Magazen Enèji Pwòp (Clean Energy Store) soon!
Enèji Pwòp branded Nokero Solar Bulbs with Haitian Creole Packaging
People in Les Anglais loved these when we did our field trials, and this will be the most affordable Enèji Pwòp solar product yet. We’re excited to be expanding our solar offerings!
Check out EarthSpark’s new Enèji Pwòp Brochure! We’re using this document to help fundraise around our recent grant from the UN Environment Programme. Feel free to share this brochure with your friends, colleagues and family!
The UN Environmental Program (UNEP) named EarthSpark International as one of five original implementing partners in its multi-year multi-sector Côte Sud Initiative which aims to bring sustainable prosperity to Haiti’s Southern Peninsula.
In recognition of EarthSpark’s leading work in clean energy delivery, UNEP has asked EarthSpark to advise on the development of the Initative’s 5 Year Plan for the energy sector and is directly supporting EarthSpark’s work with funding and logistical support.
UNEP awarded EarthSpark $182,000 in grant funding and also delivered $80,000 to the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) for large capital purchases directed by EarthSpark.
The one-year grant will fund EarthSpark’s work to expand clean energy retail operations and also to design, manage, and implement Haiti’s first ‘smart’ microgrid. The exemplary micro-grid will highlight the value of prepayment, efficiency, and collaborative business models to deliver localized grid electricity.
Retail-level service provides low-income Haitians with access to efficient cookstoves and small-scale solar electricity systems. These high-quality, low-cost, efficient and renewable energy technologies save money over time and reduce strains on health and the environment. Clean Energy retail sites create jobs and serve as local centers of energy excellence - promoting “energy literacy” and technical training and attracting other enterprises. The model is highly scalable: EarthSpark’s local partners will soon be serving customers across the entire South-West of Haiti.
Sales team at the Clean Energy Store in Les Anglais
“This grant will enable EarthSpark to transition from pilot scale to deployment,” said EarthSpark founder Dan Schnitzer. “In doing so, our impact will increase by an order of magnitude, bringing access to clean energy across an entire province of Haiti.”
“EarthSpark has been on the ground working with communities and getting hard data about what works. They bring great value to this Initiative,” said Andrew Morton, Haiti Regeneration Initiative Coordinator for UNEP.
As a social enterprise working in rural Haiti since 2008, EarthSpark has a deep understanding of low-income customers’ energy needs and has strong local partnerships with community organizations, corporations, international institutions, and government agencies.
In partnership with local Haitian businesses, community groups and the diaspora, EarthSpark has launched Enèji Pwòp, a Haitian brand for small-scale clean energy products. Through micro-franchising and micro-consignment, Enèji Pwòp is building a network of independent retailers to sell efficient cookstoves and stand-alone solar electricity systems to households and small businesses.
The first Enèji Pwòp storefront opened its doors in Les Anglais, a small town in the South, in July 2010 and has since generated over US$28,000 in revenue. EarthSpark has partnered with Haiti’s largest micro-finance organization, Fonkoze, and has leveraged global innovations around energy lending to offer financing options that are unique in Haiti.
EarthSpark seeks to leverage the UNEP support with additional funding to increase the reach of its 2011-2013 operations. With additional support, EarthSpark will be able to reach important economies of scale that will further reduce prices for clean energy products, speed delivery, and increase the number of lives reached.
About UNEP’s Côte Sud Initiative
The Côte Sud Initiative (CSI), launched in January 2011, is the most ambitious initiative to date supporting the sustainable recovery and development of south-western Haiti. The CSI’s 20-year vision is to improve the livelihoods of more than 200,000 people in Haiti’s South Department. This will be achieved through a complex and diverse program which addresses the root causes of extreme poverty, including environmental degradation, vulnerability to disaster and limited access to social services. Learn more at www.haitiregeneration.org.
Congratulations to our friends at the UN and UN Foundation for officially launching the ‘Year of Sustainable Energy for All.’ 2012 will see the UN platform highlighting energy access, efficiency, and renewable energy. Very timely and exciting!
More info: With leadership from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN-Energy – a coordinating group of 20 UN agencies – is undertaking a new global initiative, Sustainable Energy for All. This initiative will engage governments, the private sector, and civil society partners globally to achieve three major goals by 2030:
Ensure universal access to modern energy services.
Reduce global energy intensity by 40 per cent.
Increase renewable energy use globally to 30 per cent.
In recognition of the importance of energy for sustainable economic development, the United Nations General Assembly has designated 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.
EarthSpark and the Magazen Enèji Pwòp staff launched a new Enèji Pwòp logo. The limited first-run stickers quickly found their way onto people’s shirts and car bumpers.
Congratulations to our friends at the UN and UN Foundation for officially launching the ‘Year of Sustainable Energy for All.’ 2012 will see the UN platform highlighting energy access, efficiency, and renewable energy. Very timely and exciting!