Mission Statement

We believe that entrepreneurship is an effective and appropriate way to technically advance developing nations. Just as in developed countries, it is an excellent way to introduce and disseminate needed technologies. The entrepreneur is most sensitive to both market demand and market opportunity, for his or her monetary livelihood is dependent upon it.

Today, in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and other countries, there is an interest and demand for basic electricity and the benefits it can provide. In this project, we attempt to create an opportunity for an individual entrepreneur to provide electricity to his immediate community. The objective is to engineer a method to charge 12V batteries using the hydropower available in indigenous Himalayan water mills (ghattas).

Ghattas are well distributed throughout the mountains, reaching a great deal of the remote population. It is common for a single mill to serve 10 to 20 families and be centrally located near the farmland. During much of the year a steady stream of families come with grain and leave with their flour. The nature and location of the ghatta make it a natural gathering place for families to socialize with other neighbors who have come by as well.

The integration of a battery charger with a ghatta can thus be socially unobtrusive. Along with their grain, people can bring their dead batteries to the ghatta for recharging. Distributed batteries are a good solution for electricity demand when the traditional grid cannot be extended. Many farms and homes in the Himalayas are without electricity, and are likely to remain so for a long time to come as their locations are quite remote. Although issues of transportation and disposal remain, battery usage seems the quickest and most economical path to lighting the mountains.

The precedent has already been established: villagers in some parts of eastern Nepal are currently bringing their batteries into grid-connected towns for recharging. With the dissemination of ghatta battery chargers, and the ubiquitous nature of ghattas, the need for these long trips can be alleviated and battery power can be brought to even the most remote households.

The cost of such a product, however, needs to be kept as low as possible. The owner – as the entrepreneur – will need to purchase and perform simple maintenance on it himself. For those who know Nepal this may seem like a daunting task. Nearly all alternative energy programs are significantly subsidized and most villagers have very little technical training. However, another group in Nepal, the Center for Rural Technology, has successfully launched a program to sell higher efficiency ghatta turbines for approximately US$75 to rural ghatta owners. Over 600 new turbines throughout Nepal have been purchased and sales are currently averaging over 250/year. We feel that if the price of the battery charging product stays below the price of the improved turbine (with the goal of under US$50), there should be a considerable market – fulfilling a demand and ultimately creating profit for the entrepreneur.