Selling Daylight: A Commercial Strategy to Address Global Energy Poverty

What motivates companies to invest giant sums of money? What connects two billion people without dependable electricity with driverless vehicles, virtual reality tech, and the 'Internet of Things'? Absolutely enormous commercial potential. Energy services in the developing world represent a $100 billion commercial market. So where are the proportionate investments? Though driven by ethical convictions, Selling Daylight is explicitly commercial. It is a dynamic business strategy for how to make money supplying dependable and versatile energy services to energy-poor countries and the wider world. At the heart of this is the justification that the user should be positioned at the centre of their energy services if we are to make a positive impact on global energy poverty. Stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems have been marginalized as an 'alternative' to grid electricity, when in fact their benefits represent a stronger proposition than the grid itself in many parts of the world. The focus must be on quality and value, not just selling hardware at the lowest cost. There are more applications of stand-alone PV than there are apps for smartphones. We now have a unique opportunity to do for energy services what mobile phones have done for communications. Everything that is described in this ground-breaking book can be implemented now, within existing energy-related expenditure, using widely accessible technology and easily acquired skills. Martin Bellamy specialises in developing world energy solutions. He provides product assessment, market insight and strategic business services to stand-alone energy organisations and the international investment sector. Martin is chartered as a physicist, engineer and scientist.