One of my favorite writers on energy-related issues, A. Siegel, wrote a piece at DailyKos describing a set of low tech energy-saving solutions that will alter the lives of poor people around the world.  These are things like solar powered lighting that replaces kerosene, wood cooking stoves that use biomass instead of wood, and radios that use renewable energy.  Add in business models that utilize micro-loans that enable people to buy, for example, solar energy, battery, light combinations for $25 and make more money immediately because they can work into the evenings later.  People buy them because they meet a need at an affordable price and pay for themselves in a few months. 

The best and most sustainable aspect of the solution: it's straight business.  Both companies that Siegel profiles, PowerMundo, which produces solar powered lighting, efficient wood stoves and renewable energy radios, and D-Light Design, which focuses exclusively on solar powered lighting (and mobile charging), are in it to make money.  In doing so, they will need to build networks of people in-country to market the products.  They are keeping product prices low enough that the products will pay for themselves within a year, usually less. 

D-Light has started first in India, PowerMundo in Peru and Latin America.  I look forward to seeing how these innovative endeavors go.  As Siegel says, "These are not Silver Bullet solutions to the challenges of catastrophic climate change, but these are the types of efforts that help form the puzzle of paths that, together, provide us a chance to turn the tide on Global Warming's rising seas."