Seite - (000023) - in Clean Water Using Solar and Wind - Outside the Power Grid

Preface and Guide for the Reader xxiii remote regions in developing parts of the world outside existing electric power grids. Solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy have an enormous potential to bring electricity anywhere and to improve quality of life for millions of people. Solar PV has already exceeded all expectations. As a result, international agencies and organisations like the World Bank, IEA (International Energy Agency) and IRENA (The International Renewable Energy Agency) are continuously raising their predictions of future growth. China is leading the world in solar PV and wind turbine installations. The German Energiewende has triggered a remarkable development of renewable energy. Solar home systems have already been installed in millions of homes. All this progress has led to huge development in manufacturing skill and  quality, which will increase the potential for use in other parts of the world. There is an encouraging development in the efforts to increase the speed of off-grid electrification. In 2012 the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA, 2017) was established, an independent, not- for-profit industry association (www.gogla.org). GOGLA represents over 100 members as the voice of the off-grid solar energy industry. The organisation was born out of the IFC/World Bank’s Lighting Global programme. Lighting Global (www.lightingglobal.org) is the World Bank Group’s platform to support sustainable growth of the international off-grid solar market. In the 1960s the activists chanted “power to the people”. They never dreamed of the innovations that could spread light to the darkest corners of Earth. We now witness an energy revolution that has the potential to change quality of life for the world’s most disadvantaged and poor. Distributed energy will change the relationship between the producer and consumer and will empower the powerless. To supply renewable energy outside the existing electric power grids is the key not only to achieving universal access to electric energy, but also to bringing water to the millions of people who have no access to clean water today. It is my ambition and hope that the book will raise the appreciation of the new possibilities that renewable energy gives in providing clean water for all. It is the combination of pressure from the grassroots movements and concerned citizens in combination with technology Downloaded from https://iwaponline.com/ebooks/book-pdf/520710/wio9781780409443.pdf by IWA Publishing user