太阳能：非洲经济的秘密武器

发展中国家消费者的强大力量

    已故著名管理教授C.K.普哈拉曾在《金字塔底层的财富》（The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid）一书中称，通过为“金字塔底层”人群设计产品和服务，公司不仅可以盈利，还能造福社会——这部分人群每天的生活费不超过2.50美元，总数大约有30亿人。

    太阳能制造商d.Light的CEO唐恩•泰斯在芝加哥大学（University of Michigan）学习时就师从普哈拉。总部位于旧金山的d.Light制造平价优质的太阳能灯，近几年已成为平价太阳能行业的排头兵。d.Light是2013年150万美元扎耶德未来能源奖（Zayed Future Energy Prize）的获奖者，每个月向全球卖出40万盏灯。

    泰斯觉得，d.Light的成功证明了普哈拉的理论。他说：“太阳能是个机会，既能给全球带来巨大改变，也可以实现企业盈利和个人利益。”

    在太阳能创业者中，市场化解决方案能改善民生是一个重要的信念。煤油常常被谈及。这种“脏光源”会降低室内空气质量，而且成本也很高。贫穷的非洲人口将近三分之一的收入都花在煤油上；整个非洲大陆每年这上面的花费约为100亿美元。同时，这种燃料也很危险。d.Light的一位创始人山姆•古德曼曾在西非为和平工作队（Peace Corps）工作了四年，曾经目睹过一场由煤油灯引发的火灾造成了孩子的毁容的惨剧。与此类似，Fenix的汉德勒2009年在肯尼亚乡村为一家非营利机构工作时，一场煤油灯引发的火灾造成了邻舍的一个婴儿死亡。

    但是，远远落后于需求增长的电网扩张并不足以削减当地对煤油等燃料的依赖。这是一个全球性问题。发展中国家的人们正在变得越来越有钱，电力需求也在增长。更多的人，更多的收入，等于能源消费的增长。

    “它造就了一个庞大的需求生成回路，”泰斯说。“供应不可能跟得上。集中化的电网体系无能为力。核能过于资本密集化，而且具有高风险。”他说，太阳能提供了一种可扩展的平价方式来缓解能源荒。

The vast power of the developing market consumer

    In The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, the late C.K. Prahalad, a prominent management professor, argued that companies can make a profit and do good by designing products and services for the "base of the pyramid" -- the roughly 3 billion people who live on $2.50 or less a day.

    Donn Tice, CEO of solar manufacturer d.Light, studied at the University of Michigan under Prahalad. San Francisco-based d.Light -- a manufacturer of high quality, affordable solar lamps -- has been for several years at the vanguard of the affordable solar industry. A 2013 recipient of the $1.5 million Zayed Future Energy Prize, d.Light sells 400,000 lamps a month worldwide.

    For Tice, d.Light's successes are proof of Prahalad's thesis. "Solar is an opportunity to both make a big difference in the world and to do it profitably and in a self-interested way," he said.

    Among solar entrepreneurs, the notion that market-based solutions can improve lives is a key article of faith. Kerosene often comes up. The "dirty light" source deteriorates in-house air quality and is expensive. Poorer Africans spend nearly a third of their income on kerosene; the continent as a whole annually spends about $10 billion on it. The fuel is also dangerous. One of d.Light's founders, Sam Goldman, spent four years in the Peace Corps in West Africa and witnessed its hazards in the form of a child disfigured by a kerosene fire. Similarly, in 2009, Fenix's Handler was working for a non-profit in rural Kenya when a kerosene fire claimed a neighbor's baby.

    Yet local dependence on fuels like kerosene will not be alleviated by grid expansion, which lags too far behind demand. This is a global problem. Populations in developing economies are getting richer and are demanding more power. More people with more income equals rising consumption of energy.

    "It creates a powerful demand generation loop," Tice said. "Supply can't possibly keep up. The centralized grid system is broken. Nuclear is too capital intensive, and high risk." Solar, he said, offers a scalable, affordable means to alleviating energy poverty.