Social enterprises have made great progress is developing effective solar lighting alternatives to the dirty and costly kerosene prevalent in the homes of more than 1.2 billion people. Additionally, finance mechanisms have further improved the favorable lifetime costs of kerosene replacement. So why haven't these energy access solutions seen viral uptake among low-income consumers? 



Clearly, the answer lies in the behavior patterns of potential customers relative…

Social enterprises can not afford to allow conventional wisdom to hold back inspiration. In the field of energy access for villagers, conventional wisdom assumes that Village life = Low-Tech so therefore, only energy solutions which are low-tech are capable of taking firm roots among the lifestyles of rural populations. From this logic, many providers of solar solutions are driving toward simple solutions at low cost and away from alternatives which might be sophisticated, multi-functional,…