Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Harish Hande at CGI

We've all heard how solar energy is not very cost effective, and perhaps this belief is what keeps us from implementing it more often--even in developed countries. Well what if I tell you that someone was able to prove that solar energy can be cheap, and while selling to the poor he even made a self-sustainable organization?

Meet Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Harish Hande. Perhaps you heard him at this week's Clinton Global Initiative where he talked about his perspective on the need to drive innovation from the bottom of the pyramid. 

Through his organization, the Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO), Harish sells, services, and finances clean energy to low-income populations in India. According to Ashoka's Full Economic Citizenship Initiative: "since 1995, over 95,000 solar systems have been installed by SELCO with 400,000 people directly benefitting and tens of thousands more indirectly benefitting. Prevented emissions are estimated to be of 375,000 tons of CO2. With a staff of more 150, SELCO has twenty-five solar service center offices in the states of Karnataka, Andhra, Pradesh, and Kerala and has significantly expanded to service communities and institutional infrastructure as far as Sri Lanka."

I invite you to read this wonderful Forbes India article by Ashoka Support Network member Subroto Bagchi where he interviews Harish on how this is possible.