COMMUNITY Technology Collaborative to create an innovative development model that answers these systemic questions while creating opportunity to the individuals providing these development services.
Mayan Power and Light HEATHER THOMSON AND MONIKA GOFORTH
Every evening when you get home, what is the first thing that you do? For many of us it’s something so small that we don’t even think of it: we turn on the lights. And yet what we take for granted: 17% of Guatemalan communities have no electricity. This means they have no radio, no way to charge their cell phone, no lights to see, read or weave. They must hold community meetings strictly during daylight and have no access to computers or internet communications. Therefore they have less access to information about the market or political conditions and less opportunity to advocate for their community’s needs. Recent improvements in solar technology have provided a sustainable and affordable solution to rural underdevelopment. Solar power is lighting rural homes as campesinos excitedly purchase inexpensive solar products from traveling salespeople. Families invest from Q250 in Solar Lamps that charge cellphones to 40 watt - 100 watt home systems that provide 3-4 lights. Some of these products work well, but many products reaching isolated communities are made “too cheap” and break easily with no official business to provide guarantees, follow-up assistance or replacement parts. Many rural homes now have dusty relics of broken solar lamps (either bought or donated by charitable organizations) simply because the battery needs to be replaced. Without services to maintain solar technology, this sustainable solution could devolve into more waste and pollution in rural areas.
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative (ATC) is a US-based non-profit organization whose purpose is to “design, develop, demonstrate and distribute appropriate technological solutions for meeting the basic human needs of low income people worldwide.” ATC developed the Mayan Power and Light program with their Guatemalan partners and social enterprise, Soluciones Energéticas Apropiadas (SEA). Mayan Power and Light is an innovative, self-sustaining development model that started up a social enterprise that ‘pays it forward’ by training rural people, electricians and university students in solar technology while selling quality technologies in underserved regions. This model builds a sustainable local economy that is inclusive for women, indigenous, rural and low-income people while providing access to affordable, appropriate technologies to isolated regions in order to improve health and economic productivity. Mayan Power and Light served over 11,000 people with access to solar lights in their homes and community buildings in 20152016. The model encourages sustainable economic growth and training instead of handouts. The final beneficiary, the lowincome rural household, demonstrates commitment to the solution by purchasing their technology from a saleswoman in their region who will ultimately invest her earnings on her children’s health and education.
How do we get quality solar technology to isolated communities in a cost-efficient way? Who will maintain it? Who will provide technical assistance and replacement parts?
Mayan Power and Light began in 2013 when ATC incubated a majority-woman owned solar business called Soluciones Energéticas Apropriadas (SEA), located in Quetzaltenango, 8 calle 7-39 Zona 1. This innovative social business does gridtied and off-grid solar power systems to help people and businesses reduce their monthly electricity bills and protect the environment. They also put solar technology, and its profits, right into the hands of Guatemalan women.
The intersection between sustainable energy access and rural development challenges attracted The Appropriate
SEA trains women in basic solar technology, business skills and sales strategies. These women become known as asesoras comu-
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nitarias advocating for solar, LED lights, water filters and fuel-saving stoves at municipal, community and private buildings. The environmental and social awareness the asesoras learn in training is shared with their clients as they discuss the benefits of these technologies. These individual micro-franchises make less money than most businesses, but compensated with training and immediate reward from sales with no debt, one asesora, Josefina, claims “It helped me overcome my economic conditions.” Others reported that they gained respect and esteem in their communities after becoming asesoras comunitarias. They also developed selfconfidence and began to engage in public life with a stronger voice. Carmelina wired her own solar panel to turn on her town’s first light bulbs in their only public building. Fatima helped provide Circuits and Solar training in three communities. Other national and international non-profits benefit from our work by contracting SEA to install solar power on their facilities, improving their organization’s financial and environmental sustainability. Communities have also organized funds to invite SEA to train them to install solar on 20 homes, reducing costs and leaving each household with a trained person to manage and maintain the system. In this way, Mayan Power and Light empowers individuals, civil society and the green economy in Guatemala. The impacts of even a small solar power system has wide ripple effects on a community. Productively increases drastically when lighting is available past sunset. Women can weave, children can do homework and the entire community can meet for cultural events when electricity is available. ATC and SEA are expanding opportunities for community development and strengthening the social fabric of the communities they serve.
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