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KARNATAKA-BASsED Solar Electric Lighting Company (SELCO) has hard sold domestic solar lighting systems in the state at an envious success rate. And what makes their task all the more laudable is that these solar lighting systems do not come cheap. Each one costs between Rs 15,000-18,500 - a price which would generally take it out of the reach of the poor. But SELCO has circumvented the problem by beginning a 'lease-to-own' scheme for the customers. With the success of the scheme SELCO has secured a place for itself in the state's growing trade business of solar products.

The genesis of SELCO lies in the pioneering efforts by Harish Hande and Umesh Rai to sell the solar lighting systems way back in 1994. Without any financial assistance, the two entrepreneurs set out to find a house in the rural coastal Karnataka to show case the solar lighting system. Their moral boosted by the first villager they were able to convince to set up the system, they traveled across various villages and held numerous demonstrations. "In those days, it was very difficult to make people understand the mechanisms of solar panels, since the concept of solar energy to generate electricity was a novel one in the rural community of the region" says Rai, who in his earlier avtar had been a television salesman.

SELCO India eventually came into being in 1995 as a subsidiary of SELCO-US, under the leadership of Hande and Neville Williams, president of SELCO-US.

In 1996, Winrock International (WI) released a conditional grant of us $150,000, under the USAID Renewable Energy Commercialization project [at its India office in New Delhi, now Winrock International India] that stretched for over three years.

But for this the two entrepreneurs had to present a feasibility report before being granted the aid. The plan was quite simple. It focused on establishing a steady, long-term policy while simultaneously maintaining a good relationship with the customers and building their trust and confidence. A financial model was proposed in the plan that was equally uncomplicated. It suggested a viable payment policy in which the customer was to pay 25 per cent of the cost as down payment and a small monthly installment in keeping with the average monthly expenditure budget of a typical family in the region.

Along with the lucrative financing scheme, the company introduced an irresistible package: an additional one-year guarantee to the manufacturer's warranty, a 90-day money back guarantee along with a year's free service. The package hit it off with the community.

Slowly the funds started pouring in. Rockefeller Foundation invested US $107,500 and became SELCO India's first investor. Solar Energy Light Fund, a US-based non-governmental organization that promotes solar lighting in the third world, also contributed to the initial funding of SELCO.

Today the company services the region, taking extra care to ensure after sales service. "We make sure that the region is accessible, at least by a two wheeler, so that the snag in the solar product can be rectified within 24 hours," says Rai. The SELCO team con-ducts a mandatory check every four months on every appliance sold. This is one of the reasons why the company has branches all over the state. SELCO India has 18 centres in Karnataka with a staff strength of 72. It has a target of lighting up 6,000 houses in the year 2001 and will be opening three to four more branches.

Insights in Action is pleased to announce that, in January 2001, it signed an agreement with Winrock International to support work on NGO capacity development as part of Winrock's USAID-funded Solar Finance Capacity Building Initiative. The purpose of the two-year initiative is to increase capacity for and reduce barriers to solar energy financing in India. It is coordinated by the Clean Energy Group of Winrock International, Washington, DC and implemented with the assistance of several partner organizations, including Winrock International India, Solar International Management, Inc" the Institute for Sustainable Power, the Solar Electric Light Fund, and Insights in Action.

Winrock International works to increase long-term productivity, equity, and responsible resource management. It matches innovative approaches in agriculture, environmental protection, clean energy, leadership development, and policy analysis with the unique needs of its partners. Its goal is to benefit the poor and disadvantaged. It sees renewable energy as essential to economic stability and growth, creation of jobs and small businesses, improved living standards, and a healthier planet. Winrock uses renewable energy (solar, wind water, geothermal, and biomass) to bring electricity to millions of rural people worldwide.

Operating from its Delhi office, Winrock International India (WII) has been involved in promoting renewables, energy efficiency, natural resource management and climate change in India over the past few years. An affiliate of the US-based Winrock International, the Indian arm is a non-governmental organization (NGO) registered under the Indian Societies Act. The entity takes pride in its NGO status. “We had a choice when we registered. We could have gone for a for-profit, section 25 company. But we insisted on the NGO complexion because of our mission, objectives and vision as well as the nature of support, which also involves many softer issues, such as bio-diversity, conservation, and working with local communities,” explains Shyamala Abeyratne, President, WII. The main program areas of WII are energy and environment, natural resource management and outreach. The main purpose of the energy-environment program is to promote renewable energy and clean energy technologies by facilitating their deployments for commercial and productive applications. This involves educating communities and entrepreneurs through their outreach program and arranging for funds. “Along with the promotion of renewables, we have got into the business of financing mechanisms for these projects as it is a linked activity,” says Abeyratne. WII drives the process by working closely with several donor agenceis such as mul- tilaterals, bilaterals, government agencies, private foundations and private companies. One of the WII projects that has reached fruition is the RECOMM project (renewable energy commercialization). Launched in 1995 and supported by USAID, the project involved promoting renewable techniques, such as solar photovoltaic and biomass, mainly in the rural areas. Besides technical support, WII extended conditional grants (50 per cent) and loans up to Rs 1 million to entrepreneurs for setting up small projects. The grants helped balance out the initial up-front development costs of such projects. Since the $31.5 million project implementation was completed in September 1999, the loan repayments are being invested in RECOMM Reflows projects which would further the objectives of the original project. Under this, loans will be extended to small- and medium-sized entities in the private sector for development of small hydel, wind and solar projects. The loan amount will be limited to 50 per cent of the project cost, and range from the rupee equivalent of $10,000 to $20,000. The interest rate for such projects is 1-3 per cent below the prime lending rate with a repayment period of 10 years. Apart from these ongoing programs, WII is also working on technology and source-specific programs such as WEDS (wind energy development secretariat) for promotion of wind energy and the Canecogen program for encouraging cogeneration using sugarcane in the sugarcane belt of India comprising Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. In the area of energy efficiency, one of the recent initiatives of WII, in conjunction with the private sector, is an agricultural pump-sets energy consumption study that the NGO is doing for the Noida Power Company. The latter, a distribution company supplying power to agricultural consumers around Delhi, has given WII the mandate to assess normative electricity consumption by agricultural consumers. Besides energy-related initiatives, WII has taken up activities in the area of natural resource management, climate change and alternative transport fuels. “All our programs – natural resources, forestry resources, etc – meet and marry at certain points in time, they feed off each other,” explains Abeyratne. Besides India, Winrock has a wide-spread presence across the world. In Asia, it works in Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and China. “We are getting our act together in India but are moving out of our borders. We are doing a project in Cambodia, we are working on initiatives in South Africa,” says Abeyratne. The Cambodian project, being undertaken with support from the Royal Government of Cambodia and the World Bank, aims at promoting renewable energy for rural electrification in the war-torn country. The main strength of WII has been its strong linkages with global organizations, its local orientation and understanding of local issues. “Working in both global and local arenas gives us a distinct advantage as an energy organization,” says Abeyratne. As far as future priorities are concerned, WII is not planning to expand its operation too rapidly. “We have decided to temper our growth, we are sitting back and reassessing our growth plans and focusing on consolidating our existing initiatives,” Abeyratne sums up.