His company put solar power technology in the hands of the poor in rural India

Rural energy entrepreneur Harish Hande,44,has won this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award for promoting sustainable and affordable energy through his Bangalore-based Solar Electric Light Company-India (SELCO). According to the citation,Hande,an IIT Kharagpur graduate with a PhD from the University of Massachusetts,has been recognised for “his passionate and pragmatic efforts to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor,through a social enterprise that brings customised,affordable,and sustainable electricity to India’s vast rural populace,encouraging the poor to become asset creators”.

SELCO,one of the first social enterprises of its kind in India,was established by Hande in 1995. Talking to The Indian Express from the USA,Hande said SELCO was an experiment in sustainability. “I didn’t know the experiment would last 18 years,” he said. Inspired by solar energy systems for the poor in Latin America,Hande decided to change his PhD thesis in energy engineering to the socio-economics of solar energy in developing countries,and came to India to do field work in rural Karnataka in 1991-92. “In 1993,I realised it had to be sustainable. The idea of SELCO was born then. I was the only one in my twenties in the industry; the others were all in their 60s. I got pushed out of offices — they said,what can you do,you are just 24,” Hande said.

Thanks to a rural bank manager who understood Hande’s vision of redefining profit and empowering the rural poor,SELCO started tying up with banks and financial institutions. Today,it is a rural photovoltaics company with an annual revenue of Rs 16 crore that provides customised heating,lighting and cooking solutions based on solar energy. SELCO,with over 170 employees,is now reaching out to 1,25,000 households in Karnataka,Kerala and Gujarat. Hande said they hoped to add another 200,000 clients in the next five years.

Advertisement

“For us,a product is a combination of technology,finance,customer needs and linkages. We focus on satisfying the need of the customer,not on thrusting a product on him. For example,if there are four rooms in his house and he can only afford two solar lights,we will put one between the kitchen and the dining room,” Hande said.

Hande has also received the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy in 2005 and 2007.