(Information for this article came from a NY Times article  By Elisabeth Rosenthal; Published: December 24, 2010)

Water comes from a single pump that services the entire community in the center of the village.  The huts lived in are still constructed of mud; no plumbing, no bathrooms but overhead there is an oddity considering the surroundings; it is an electric light – that works!

Where the concept of public utilities is a dream from another life, where poverty is so severe its victims consider everyday staples luxuries, renewable energy is finding a home.

When the photoelectric cell was invented hopes ran equal pace with imaginations of the day.  While the first generation cells produced only small amounts of electricity, engineers knew that the route to efficient productivity was by way of the hard-earned R&D courses that have taken other technologies from the lab to the neighborhood.  Silicon chips, as we still like to call them, the CPU heard of modern computers, were once millions fold less than the capacities common today just a few years later.  So, too, it would be with the photoelectric cell – so they thought.

Advancement there proved much more difficult.  A wall of sorts blocked the way to more productive developments and advancement leveled off.  The most efficient models were just short of being feasible as a competitor with other producers of electricity.  Homes with roofs of electricity-producing photoelectric cells never materialized beyond the prototypes; the cost never made it past the prohibitive stage.

Still the advancements persisted if but far slower than hoped for.  Today one can get a fair sized photoelectric array at a rather affordable price.  This interprets to within hopeful reach -someday – to the severely impoverished.  Someday does come.

Where food is a family’s greatest expense, where medical treatment is still days travel away at the free clinic, electricity is making an appearance via the photoelectric panel.  Throughout Africa’s poorest regions and spreading throughout the rest of the world not oppressed beyond greedy tyrants renewable energy, once slated as replacements of eco-threatening providers are making an appearance as the primary provider of this precious energy.

The cost of one electricity-producing panel is steep – around $80 – but it is within reach for some.  On the mud roofs of some village huts this recognizable rectangular panel is found with a wire connected to it, running down to a whole new world in the hut below.

Slide Show (From NY Times)

Right about here is where a ‘moral of the story’ like “the poor can teach the wealthy something about renewable energy” might fit or some apothegm constructed as appropriate.  Rather, it is heartening to learn that these struggling people are finding their own answers without our meager offerings of a few of pieces of copper from our coffers of gold.