Another major part of TecAp’s work is identifying technologies that are appropriate for low income rural families. These technologies save time, energy, and/or money, are environmentally sustainable, are affordable, and often times are sourced from local materials.
A significant part of TecAp’s work is advocating on behalf of low-income farmers, cooperatives, and local governments in order to ensure that they are receiving fair treatment in terms of renewable energy investments.
TecAp assures that low-income farmers are administered a proper needs assessment to determine their electrical needs and the correct size solar system to be installed. This ensures that they are not “upsold” by a sales representative but rather are sold exactly what they need and want. TecAp also ensures that the installations are high quality and that the family receives proper follow-up to address any maintenance issues.
One of the biggest obstacles for low income coffee producers to buying a solar system is that they do not have the cash to pay $1,000 for a home system or $2,000 for a large enough system to assist their farm activities. Designed from the point of view of very small coffee farmers, TecAp works to lower the amount of the loan payment by stretching it out over 5 years.
50 families benefited from long-term loan arrangements that TecAp successfully negotiated with an international lender Root Capital and a Nicaraguan coffee cooperative UCPCO in July of 2010. TecAp revisited these families to find out what their experience had been like and what benefits they had experienced since having their home solar system installed. They all talked about benefits to their family, cost savings, and even how having the system improved businesses they ran out of their home.
TecAp works to identify solar and other appropriate technologies and to make those technologies available and affordable for the people that need them most. Some of the technologies that TecAp is looking into include solar energy, smokeless stoves (“improved cook stoves”), drip or low pressure irrigation, and rainwater catchment.
To help make these technologies affordable for the families who need them most, TecAp helps arrange longer-term loans. A low-income farming family may not have $1000 to pay for a solar system in cash, but they may be able and eager to make three smaller annual payments, especially if those payments can coincide with the time of year that they have the most disposable income–during the coffee harvest.