Projects like this should be rolled out across Africa, China, India… the entire Third World and ares of rural poverty which have sufficient sunlight hours per year to make it a viable power source. And it shouldn’t just be for clinics, but for schools for heating/lighting and to power computers, and for communities to have communication systems so they aren’t cut off from the world.

Education will drag the poor out of poverty and the dissemination of knowledge by radio, etc, will not only aid that, but help communities practically – for example, warning of extreme weather patterns, an iminent earthquake, an election, how to obtain aid.

We take flicking a lightswitch so for granted and yet billions of people across the globe simply don’t have that luxury – this is an ideal way to address that problem.

The expense? Yes, it would be massive today but then we wouldn’t have to pay tomorrow if we rid the world of poverty – give a man a fish/teach a man to fish. After all, we find money when we want it – who knew there was $700 billion hiding under Bush’s mattress!?

Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog lionsledbysheep.com
and suspense thriller ‘What if…?’