TecAp – Innovative Solar Technology Program

TecAp – Winner of Global Energy Award for Nicaragua!

Post author By
Post date 06/03/2017

TecAp wins 2017 global award representing Nicaragua!

TecAp was awarded by Energy Globe Award as having the best renewable practices in Nicaragua. It was part of 178 countries that won for global sustainable energy solutions.

Unique Best Practices can be seen Online

Our planet is facing a crucial test today. All over the world we can see the negative impacts of our environment’s pollution and destruction to the detriment of millions of people, and with dire consequences for all of our futures.

We have to make a change – not by talking but by acting. For this we need the passion, commitment, courage and cooperation with all parts of our society. 178 individuals and organizations in this world are showing how this change can happen.

Energy Globe presented these committed people and organizations and their actions awards on June 5th, the World Environment Day to tell the world that there are many creative people out there with great projects providing answers to many of our environmental problems. Click through 178 outstanding solutions on www.energyglobe.info and learn more about great people and their great actions which were awarded with the national Energy Globe Award.

This unique online-campaign is under patronage of UNESCO and done in cooperation with UNEP. It is one of many activities, Energy Globe has been implementing for 30 years to educate people about the sensible and economical use of resources and the use of renewables.

One of Energy Globe’s beacon projects is the Energy Globe Award. This environmental prize with project submissions from 178 countries has become a significant signpost to the future. By awarding these projects and presenting them to the global public it raises attention to already existing good solutions for many of our problems.

Please inform the public about these outstanding environmental solutions which can be seen online and inspire others for great actions for a better future on our planet.

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What does TecAp offer to women microfranchisees?

Post author By admin
Post date 03/09/2015

-A business that is easily replicable by low income microfranchisees with little formal education
-A tested business that meets a market demand at prices her neighbors are willing to pay
-Guaranteed income margin to the microfranchisees so they can help their children with needed expenses like school fees, food, clothing, etc.
-Assists the women to become credit worthy with a microfinance institution so she can later borrow for other purposes.
-Her own territory in which she sell. This keeps her from having to compete against neighbors with the same products.

-Rapid access to the products that she needs that are sent to her by the TecAp support team

– Collegiate relations with other microfranchisees who help each other learn.

Tags microenterprise, Nicaragua, solar, technology

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Youth trained to be Solar Technicians

Post author By admin
Post date 04/08/2012

IDEAS has trained 76 “micro-technicians,” who are youth and women to be trained formally in how to diagnose the size, install & repair the solar roof-top systems. This provides them new employment while providing a local repair person for the hundreds of systems that have been installed but not gotten repair because the technicians live in faraway cities.

The cooperatives have been excited about youth being able to sell their services in a high tech field. This is in contrast to so many youth that have had to migrate from the coffee communities. The coops have helped with the selection and follow-up of the students.

While the students have classroom work to help them thoroughly understand solar energy and solar system problem solving, they also have practical installation and repair work as part of the course. This also involves field trips to visit solar installations.

TecAp uses trained youth to install solar systems that are sold by the women microfranchisees. As the system grew, there have been women microfranchisees selling a neighbor a roof-top system and a youth in her community having been trained to install it.

Please consider making a donation to IDEAS to provide funds needed to assist with the costs of continuing to educate youth in more sophisticated applications of renewable energy like refrigeration, pumping of water, and other energy uses in Nicaragua.

IDEAS ha recibido fondos de la Fundación IEEE para entrenar a un conjunto de “micro – técnicos,” que son los jóvenes y las mujeres para ser entrenados formalmente en cómo diagnosticar el tamaño, la instalación y la reparación de los sistemas solares de techo. Esto les proporcionará nuevos puestos de trabajo al tiempo que proporciona a un técnico local para los cientos de sistemas que se han instalado, pero que no han sido reparados porque los técnicos viven en ciudades lejanas.

Las cooperativas están entusiasmadas con la posibilidad de que los jóvenes puedan vender sus servicios en un campo de alta tecnología. Esto estaría en contraste con tantos jóvenes que han tenido que emigrar de las comunidades cafetaleras. Las cooperativas están ayudando con la selección de los estudiantes.

Mientras que los estudiantes tienen trabajo en el aula para ayudar a comprender a fondo la energía solar y los sistemas solares, también tienen instalación práctica y reparación como parte del curso. Esto también implicará viajes de campo para visitar los sitios de las instalaciones solares.

TecAp será capaz de utilizar algunos de los jóvenes capacitados para instalar sistemas solares que son vendidos por las microfranquiciadas mujeres. A medida que el sistema crece, habrá mujeres microfranquiciadas vendiendo sistemas solares de techo a los vecinos, y en su comunidad habrá un/a joven entrenado/a para instalarlo.

El curso se llevará a cabo en el segundo semestre de 2013. Por favor considere hacer una donación a IDEAS para proporcionar los fondos necesarios para ayudar con los costos de los cursos.

IDEAS tiene previsto celebrar un curso similar el próximo año.

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Solar energy is proven to greatly assist rural women and their families

Post author By admin
Post date 04/01/2015

High quality coffee is grown in the mountains, often far away from the national electrical grid. One third of all Nicaraguan families do not have access to conventional electricity.

Low income women and their families who have bought solar systems found three major types of benefits. 1) Benefits to the family: Family health improves by replacing kerosene lamps that produce toxic pollution and soot in their house. It allows the family to study at night and makes household tasks and care of the sick easier. New electric appliances, like blenders, save labor and time. 2) It saves the family money each month on batteries, fuel & long trips to charge cell phones. These savings can be used for better nutrition. 3) Solar helps women generate money in their microenterprises. Women who have home-based grocery stores say that neighbors are attracted to their stores at night. Some may come in to watch a show on the new solar-powered TV and end up buying their food there. Solar energy can pump water for the house, animals and to irrigate crops.

This allows women microfranchisees, and youth technicians supported by TecAp, to diversify their sources of income. For the poor, saving money and increasing income create a higher quality of life and provide more choices.

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TecAp presents at regional conference in Guatemala

Post author By cgarber
Post date 08/06/2013

TecAp Technical Coordinator Hermogenes Zelaya presented at a regional microfinance conference on Tuesday June 25 in Panajachel, Guatemala. The conference was hosted by Red Katalysis, a network of 22 microfinance institutions throughout Central America. This was the first international event attended by TecAp and proved to be an extremely valuable tool for sharing the knowledge and experience that has been gained through the TecAp microfranchise. Zelaya shared about a pilot project TecAp has recently undertaken in Yali, Nicaragua. This pilot project is run in conjunction with the Nicaraguan microfinance institution FUNDENUSE and features a new “green” microloan product. This new loan product allows TecAp microfranchisees to purchase a stock of solar-powered products. They then sell those products in their community and use the revenue to repay their loan and purchase additional stock. This innovative loan product has many benefits for the microfranchisee, her family, and her customers. Click here to learn more about the benefits of renewable energy for rural families in Nicaragua.

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Nohemi sells solar products

Post author By admin
Post date 06/10/2015

Nohemí Barahona, 49, is one of the first microfranchisees to sell solar powered products in the rural areas of Murra, bordering Honduras. She sells lanterns, cell phone chargers & lamps. Her community was once the scene of fierce fighting by the Contras, the rebel group in the 1980s that fought the Nicaraguan government. Murra is relatively peaceful today, and its inhabitants make their living primarily from farming corn, beans and growing coffee. Barahona grows beans and coffee and also raises farm animals. She is a strong voice and advocate for her community.

Barahona is an activist and one of the first to raise her voice in defense of the rights of women and girls. She helps and mentors women who acquire and raise farm animals through a government support program. She volunteers with the Ministry of Health and also oversees a community pharmacy supplying veterinary medicines.

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Will Kiva offer green loans in Nicaragua?

Post author By cgarber
Post date 08/07/2013

“My Kiva fellowship recently brought me to Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the western hemisphere, where approximately 75% of the rural population does not have access to grid electricity. A significant portion of my time in Nicaragua will involve working with an exciting new partner named Tecnosol. Tecnosol is the Central American leader in the sale and installation of decentralized renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, hydro, and biogas.” Read more…“

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IDEAS solves a financial problem so the poor can purchase roof-top systems

Post author By admin
Post date 03/06/2015

One of the biggest obstacles for a low income coffee producer to buy a roof-top solar system is obviously the cost. IDEAS partnership with the coffee cooperatives and fair trade coffee companies has allowed the farmers to obtain longer term financing with payments that are compatible with the coffee growing season. For example, Root Capital agreed to consider the coffee coops’ request for 3 year loans so the coops can drop the payment amount for roof-top solar systems. The first success of this system was 50 systems that were installed in July 2010. Root Capital lent for 3 years to the coop, which in turn has lent for 3 years to its members. TecAp has worked to repeat this with other fair trade coffee coops. IDEAS repeated its success with another international lender by assisting Oikocredit to make its first $100,000 loan to solar energy for farmers in the “Cooperativa 20 de Abril” in Nicaragua.

To assist rural families that are not part of cooperatives, IDEAS began working with microfinance institutions early on in the TecAp microfranchise. In recent years, it has worked intensively with Financiera FDL that has lower interest rates and good terms for low income rural families. The youth micro-technicians, trained by IDEAS, find a potential buyer and collect basic information. FDL then does due diligence on the family and then lends the funds. The family contracts the services of IDEAS that then use the youth to install the system. It is a win-win for all concerned.

Thanks to Julia Manzerova for the photo of rooftop solar panels attached to this post.

TecAp News and Updates

Social entrepreneurship: More complex than ‘start a business, save the world’

Post author By cgarber
Post date 10/18/2013

There are still more questions than answers surrounding the [social entreprenuership] field — from how to start and how to balance a for-profit business model with social cause to how to measure impact. The very nature of entrepreneurship means seeking to solve a yet unanswered question and navigating uncertainty along the way. Panelists sought to answer a few of these questions during a breakout session focused on social entrepreneurship sponsored by The Rockefeller Foundation at the Devex Career Fair in Nairobi. “It sounds great: start a business, save the world,” said C.D. Glin, associate director of the Africa Regional Office for The Rockefeller Foundation. “This is the kind of language we hear, but how about rubber-meeting-the-road reality?” Read more…“

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TecAp: Supporting Women in Nicaragua to be Microfranchisees

Post author By admin
Post date 04/08/2012

The Institute for Development, Evaluation, Assistance and Solutions (IDEAS) is a non-profit that has become a microfranchisor. It created a microfranchise, TecAp, which is an innovative technology program to assist women in rural Nicaragua to become microfranchisees. This means that TecAp trains the women microfranchisees about solar energy and other appropriate technologies. It also provides to the microfranchisee products and gives her an exclusive geographical area in which to sell. The women can start earning within a week after she joins. For some women this is her first business. For others the new income provides an important complement to other sources of household income.

These rural women sell solar-powered products and promote larger roof-top solar systems and labor saving technologies to their neighbors. This has succeeded in improving their own incomes and their neighbors’ quality of life in their fair trade coffee cooperatives and surrounding communities.

For the women who live in areas covered by a cooperative, their participation in the TecAp microenterprise means that they may now become members of the coop. Women who do not have land that they cultivate themselves have typically been excluded but being economically active in the TecAp microfranchise makes them eligible to be voting members and obtain the coop’s benefits.

El Instituto para el Desarrollo, Evaluación, Asistencia y Soluciones (IDEAS) es una organización sin fines de lucro que se ha convertido en un microfranquiciador. Creó una microfranquicia, TecAp, que es un programa de tecnología innovadora para ayudar a las mujeres en zonas rurales de Nicaragua a convertirse en microfranquiciadas. Esto significa que TecAp capacita a las mujeres microfranquiciadas sobre la energía solar y otras tecnologías apropiadas. También proporciona los productos a las microfranquiciadas y les da un área geográfica exclusiva en la que vender. Las mujeres pueden comenzar a ganar dentro de una semana después de que ellas se unen. Para algunas mujeres este es su primer negocio. Para otras, los nuevos ingresos proporcionan un complemento importante de otras fuentes de ingresos de los hogares.

Estas mujeres rurales venden productos de energía solar y promueven los sistemas solares de techo más grandes y las tecnologías de ahorro de mano de obra para sus vecinos. Esto ha logrado mejorar sus ingresos y la calidad de vida de sus vecinos en sus cooperativas de café de comercio justo y las comunidades circundantes.

Para las mujeres que viven en áreas cubiertas por una cooperativa, su participación en la microempresa TecAp significa que ahora pueden convertirse en socias de la cooperativa. Por lo general, las mujeres que no tienen tierras que se cultivan han sido excluidas, pero ya que son económicamente activas en la microfranquicia TecAp, son elegibles para ser socias votantes y obtener los beneficios de la cooperativa.