SELCO India or Solar Electric Light Company,
India is the nation’s leading social enterprise.
Its business has had a significant contribution to India’s poor households. It
uses its solar energy-based interventions. To date, SELCO has installed about
125,000 solar energy systems in homes and aims to hit 200,000 by the end of
2014. India’s government has recognized SELCO’s contributions and awarded the
company with the Ashden Awards
(equivalent to the Green Oscars) in 2005 and in 2007.
SELCO was founded by Dr. Harish Hande and
co-founded by Dr. Neville Williams in 1995. Dr. Hande was a graduate of IIT
Kharagpur. While taking his doctorate at the University of Massachusetts, Dr.
Hande birthed the concept of a sustainable source of energy for India. He had
the privilege of visiting a poor community in Dominican Republic that uses
solar lights. He used this as a model for a similar project in India. He made
further studies on poverty and the intervention of solar energy in Sri Lanka.
After these study trips, Dr. Hande met with Dr.
Williams, the founder of Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF). SELF is a non-profit
organization that focuses on bringing electricity to rural areas worldwide.
In 1995, Dr. Hande and Dr. Williams co-founded
SELCO to help meet the needs of people in India who lacked access to adequate
energy. At SELCO’s startup stage, SELF owned majority of the stakes. As SELCO
started to gain momentum, Dr. Williams slowly withdrew SELF’s interests in the
company.
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