Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Shipping Container - Loaded!

Yesterday, May 11th 2010, was a momentus day for SunPower Afrique, and the first physical, tangible step towards the pilot project in June. The container has been loaded!
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At approximately 4PM a tractor trailer pulling a 20 foot Maersk shipping container labored its way down Pechins Mill Road, executed a 35 point turn and grunted to a halt amidst the boxes and packaged solar equipment being shipped to Togo on May 18th.
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The entire SunPower team, including SunPower Builders employees and SunPower Afrique volunteers (often one in the same these days...!) made this possible throughout the past 2 weeks. I am eternally grateful. Last minute runs to the electrical supply house, frantic phone calls to Conway and UPS tracking packages and confirming shipments, rigorous testing of all system components...
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Miraculously, when the truck arrived, so had everything else...except for one 21lb package containing an inverter controller, which we will carry with us in a month, along with all of the other items we realize-we-might-possibly-need-and-didn't-already-bring-3-extras :)
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For 2 hours, we loaded the container. All items were boxed and itemized, protected and secured and lifted into the gaping mouth of the giant, echoing metal box that will carry our prized cargo across the ocean.
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Here is a short story in pictures of what feels like the beginning of the end of a long journey, but is really just the beginning of another beginning, of a whole nother, larger, even more exciting adventure...
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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

SunPower Afrique Goes National!

This weekend, I will be speaking on a panel at The Chicago Microfinance Conference (CMFC), a collaborative effort among leading graduate business and policy institutions that brings together practitioners, academics and emerging industry leaders to advance the strategic debate of the future of microfinance.

I was originally invited to be a speaker at the conference on the general theme of "Green Microfinance" but as the conference's agenda developed, organizations throughout the world doing similiar work combining renewable energy, the environment and microfinance were brought in to form a panel called "Microfinance Goes Green." I will be joined by 3 others to discuss why renewables and microfinance, and the environment and international development, are inherently linked, and where this momentum will lead the microfinance community in the coming years.

You can learn more about the conference participants and the conference itself here: http://www.chicagomicrofinance.com/speakers.shtml

If you're in Chicago come check it out!

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In other news, after the pilot project, I will be focusing on an application for this grant from the Draper Richards Foundation: http://www.draperrichards.org/process/guidelines.html

This grant, which supports startup non-profit social ventures with funding for 3 years, fits perfectly with SunPower Afrique's mission, current status and future vision. The foundation's homepage states: "By delivering critical support at the start-up phase, Draper Richards Fellowships help outstanding people create wide-spread social change."

A Draper Richards Fellowship, along with the excellent reccomendations on our financial model from Penn State, would allow SunPower Afrique to operate in the black and move beyond the pilot state into our 10-year scaleability plan. Ashoka watch out, I WILL be back...I am a passionate and principled entrepreneur.