Comments on: 300 MW Of Ethiopian Solar Farms To Be Built By US Companies http://cleantechnica.com/2013/11/12/300-mw-ethiopian-solar-farms-built/ Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More. Sun, 28 Dec 2014 08:17:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1 By: Bob_Wallace http://cleantechnica.com/2013/11/12/300-mw-ethiopian-solar-farms-built/#comment-191512 Wed, 13 Nov 2013 02:16:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=58825#comment-191512 As far as the micro-solar systems go, no one is giving these systems to anyone as far as I know. They are giving people the opportunity to purchase systems on a time payment basis.

These folks don’t have the surplus incomes to purchase systems up front but can use the money they would have spent on kerosene and candles to pay off their system.

Donated money goes for seed money to establish the dealer/service network. Most of the programs are designed to be self-maintaining and to grow over time. And I think some of the new businesses will have to repay their startup loans. Not sure how prevalent that last part is.

]]> By: JamesWimberley http://cleantechnica.com/2013/11/12/300-mw-ethiopian-solar-farms-built/#comment-191495 Tue, 12 Nov 2013 23:58:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=58825#comment-191495 The idea of giving money to Africa is to help *poor people* in Africa, or the environment, or both. What’s the evidence that these utility investments won’t pay for themselves? There are charities that provide solar lamps or water pumps to poor villagers, and reforestation: that’s all well worth supporting. Far too much official “foreign aid” is basically a subsidy to the exporters of rich countries.

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