太阳能：非洲经济的秘密武器

非洲：太阳能产品的雅芳式分销

    当初凯瑟琳•露西创立非营利组织Solar Sister时，她希望帮助乌干达等国的女性创业者们在农村分销平价太阳能产品。

    “大概五、六年前，很多太阳能公司开始为金字塔底层设计产品，”她说。价格降了下来，产品变得更出色、更可靠，供应越来越多。问题是分销投资不足。

    露西过去是纽约的一位投资银行家，专门为大型能源项目提供融资。露西在Solar Sister建立起了类似于雅芳等直销公司的草根分销网络。露西认为，太阳能产品的理想销售员就是当地的妇女。

    露西说：“在这些社区里，女性是能源客户，她们管理着家庭的能源需求...因此她们能很好地宣传介绍产品。”女性广泛的人际网络使得Solar Sister能比传统零售商更加深入地接触目标群体，而Solar Sister则提供培训和创业融资。

    露西说：“这种方式让分销深深深扎根于社区。”

    最近，这家组织从乌干达扩张到了坦桑尼亚和尼日利亚。目前，Solar Sister支持着400位女性创业者。露西计划在三年内将这个数字扩大10倍——但如果有更多的资源，她说：“我们可以扩大100倍。”

    露西表示，在缺乏电力基础设施的非洲地区，人们对太阳能的需求使得撒哈拉以南地区成为可替代能源大规模扩张的天然目标市场。“我们期待引爆点的到来，等待着绿色能源的成本能与电网一比高下的那一天，”露西说“在非洲，我们离这个引爆点还很远。”（财富中文网）

    译者：杨智

Solar Africa meets Avon?

    When Katherine Lucey founded non-profit Solar Sister, she wanted to empower female entrepreneurs in countries like Uganda, while simultaneously distributing affordable solar products in the countryside.

    "About five or six years ago, lots of solar companies started designing for the base of the pyramid," she said. Prices were coming down, products were getting better, more reliable, and there was a plethora of supply. The problem: not enough investment in distribution.

    Lucey is a former New York investment banker who specialized in financing large energy projects. With Solar Sister, Lucey built a grassroots distribution network modeled on direct sales firms like Avon. The ideal salespeople for solar products, Lucey said, are local women.

    "In these communities, women are the customers for energy, they manage household energy needs ... so they can evangelize about the product," Lucey said. Women's extensive personal networks allow Solar Sister to reach deeper into the bush than traditional retailers, and Solar Sister provides training and start-up financing.

    "This approach embeds distribution deep down in the community," Lucey said.

    The organization recently expanded from Uganda to Tanzania and Nigeria. At present, Solar Sister supports 400 female entrepreneurs. Within three years, Lucey plans to grow that number tenfold -- though with more resources, she said, "we could explode it by a hundred."

    According to Lucey, the demand for solar among off-the-grid Africans makes the Sub-Sahara a natural candidate for the large-scale expansion of alternative energy. "We look for that tipping point where green energy competes economically with the electrical grid," Lucey said. "In Africa, we are so far past that point."