Solar lantern rental scheme in rural Cambodia

Solar lantern rental scheme in rural Cambodia

Elkhuizen, W.S.

Schoormans, J.P.L. (mentor)
Diehl, J.C. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design for Sustainability

Strategic Product Design

2010-11-05

Approximately one million households in rural Cambodia still use kerosene lamps. The use of a kerosene lamp has a lot of disadvantages: It provides very poor light quality, is difficult in use and poses a fire and health risk. A substitute for kerosene light can be found in the provision of lighting through solar powered lanterns. A solar lantern can overcome the problems of kerosene lamps and provide a sustainable lighting solution in rural Cambodia. The up-front investment of a solar lantern is the most important barrier for the poorest rural households in Cambodia to adopt the technology. Providing a ‘rent-to-own’ service for the solar lantern to the customer can overcome this barrier. Rural villagers can rent a solar lantern from a local entrepreneur for a period of 12 months for the small daily fee of $0.06 USD (total $21.70). After one year the ownership of the lantern transfers from the entrepreneur to the customer. It is estimated that the entrepreneur can make a profit of $253 on an investment of $750. The project produced the following results: List of requirements for the solar lantern; a product-service system design; product distribution plan for the company; a marketing plan to market the scheme; business model for the entrepreneur and the company; expansion plan to expand business from one region to the next; and suggestions for new product development that is necessary for the product-service system.

solar lantern
rental model
Cambodia
BoP

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:10a730f3-a033-4c6f-bb41-bf85102772fb

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2010 Elkhuizen, W.S.