“Imagine the world at night as seen from space. I am sure many of you have seen this picture, but every time I see it, I am reminded of one of the most important issues of our day — energy poverty. The United States is brightly lit. Africa is dark. So is much of the rest of the developing world. Cities show on the map, but the rural poor live — quite literally — in the dark.”
That was UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in August 2011.
Even now, nine years later, more than 1.2 billion people across the world still lack access to electricity. A further 2.8 billion have no choice other than traditional biomass for cooking and heating.
That’s more than half the people on our planet with a lack of access to electricity and few alternatives other than burning fossil fuels.
We need affordable solutions to fix this disparity. We need to provide access to cheap, renewable energy.
It’s not just the developing world
Energy poverty is the lack of access to energy, whereas fuel poverty (a term used in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand) is where the cost of energy puts a person below the poverty line.
Fuel poverty is a widespread problem across the Western world.
In Europe, as many as 125 million people are unable to afford proper indoor heating. In the UK, an estimated 3.5m households are fuel poor (around 10% of the country); while in the United States, one in three people (37m) experience fuel poverty.
Current solutions for this problem involve hand-outs or capping energy pricing for those unable to pay, but it doesn’t reduce the overall price of energy.
While global energy prices go down, there’s an increase in the cost of delivery/transmission as companies try to recoup their extensive investment due to energy generation moving further from the demand.
As a result, the overall price we pay for energy is increasing, and for those without access, the end to energy poverty moves ever further away.
Alpha 311 turbines generate clean energy where it’s needed most, for use by those who need it most.
The powers-that-be need to have honest conversations and embrace radical solutions if they’re serious about helping the developing world step out of the darkness.
