Solar Village Project has made substantial progress on multiple fronts in the past year. This report summarizes the projects we have implemented and describes plans for extending our work to include solar water pumps and enhancing our ability to assess our impact. It also includes a financial summary and brief look at our future plans.

Annual Report

Joe Kselman

A MESSAGE FROM SVP FOUNDER/ DIRECTOR

Dear Friends, This past year has brought a number of significant advances for Solar Village Project. In September 2017 we implemented two more projects in India, distributing lights to over 1000 people in 270 homes in two villages in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. We also implemented another round of projects in Senegal in April of 2017, reaching over 300 homes and over 1500 people there as well. Along with our projects in India and Africa we’ve also distributed 800 lanterns to the homeless population in the Washington D.C. area. In addition to implementing new projects, we have also established connections with two organizations that will have a tremendous impact on our capacity building efforts, the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policy (ISEP), and Nuera Solar, a U.S. based residential solar installation company. ISEP’s founder, Johannes Urpelainen, is a Professor of Energy, Resources, and Environment at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and written extensively on the impact of solar power on impoverished communities. Over the next year SAISISEP will begin working with SVP to develop strategies for assessing and maximizing the effectiveness of our projects. Nuera Solar, our first corporate sponsor, played a significant role in helping to finance our projects over the past year. As Nuera continues to increase their contributions SVP will be able to expand the scope of our projects to include drastically needed solar water pumps and filters for all of our village projects. SVP has also been accepted into the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) which allows federal employees to donate to SVP and also for SVP to do presentations in Federal agencies to help raise awareness. The Solar Village Project continues to rely on its supporters who have been the principal source of funds for our work in India, Africa, and the United States. With the help of our friends, and in collaboration with our new partners, we hope to build on our past success and look forward to new opportunities as we do our part in providing the basic resources of power, light, and water to those most in need. Joe Kselman Executive Director, Solar Village Project

STATISTICS

Number of projects implemented

14 Number of homes electrified 560

Project Data Number of solar power units distributed 3000 Number of people supported 4000

2016 – 2017 FINANCES From October 2016, the time of our last annual report, to October 2017 Solar Village Project has raised over $50,000. Over 75% of those funds came from contributions in the amount of $150 or less. In the past year SVP spent $35,000 on solar hardware which was distributed during projects, and $9,000 dollars on project implementation costs. Contributions from SVP board members covered 80% of implementation expenses, which include local project manager stipends. Our general operating costs remain low at around $3000, which covered expenses such as our new website, fundraiser table fees, admission into the Combined Federal Campaign, and miscellaneous material costs such as printing and shipping. As of October 28th. 2017 Solar Village Project has a positive balance of $9,266.

SVP Financial Summary 2017 60000

50000

40000

30000

20000

10000

0 Funds Raised

Solar Purchases

Project Expenses

Operating Costs

Bank Fees

PROJECT SUMMARY 14 full scale Solar Village Projects have been completed over the course of the last year along with the distribution of solar lanterns to the Washington D.C. area homeless. • • • •

The Chakar Fields Solar Village Project, 130 homes – India, September 2017 The Pahari Solar Village Project, 130 homes – India, September 2017 Lights For The Homeless 800 lanterns – Washington DC, June 2017 The Sahel and Littoral Solar Village Project – Senegal, April 2017

India 2017 In September of 2017 SVP implemented two more projects in India. We continued our work in Bihar by bringing lamps to the village of Chakar Fields, not far from our existing projects. We also distributed lamps in Pahari, our first project in the state of Uttar Pradesh. These two projects provided power to over 270 homes and over 1000 people. For further information on these projects see our latest blog post http://solarvillageproject.org/the-chakar-fields-andpahari-solar-village-projects/

In addition to adding two new villages to the SVP projects in September we visited the older SVP sites of Rangpur and Gauterine. In Rangpur village we were encouraged to see many homes charging their solar lights and inquiring about receiving further assistance. In Gauterine we made an interesting discovery that is relevant for our future work there. The government had installed power lines to the village, and some of the homes were connected to the grid for the first time. But villagers complained about incomplete coverage and frequently interrupted service, leading them to still rely on the solar systems we distributed three years ago. We were unable to visit Kihare village due to extremely poor road conditions. Our visit in September suggests the continued importance of solar power in India, despite government efforts to bring electricity to every village by 2019 through the grid. It seems unlikely this goal will be met. Blackouts are common even where the grid has reached the villages, and many individual homes have remained unconnected. India currently does not have enough electrical generation capacity to properly supply its existing system. Increasing the number of potential users by adding thousands of off-grid villages would further exacerbate the capacity problems. Building new power plants and transmission lines would

add to the pollution of the Indian environment. For the foreseeable future solar power remains the most viable, affordable, and healthy source of energy. Senegal 2017 In April of 2017 Mike Varhola implemented another round of projects in Senegal. Building on his previous year’s success with The Cisse Masse Solar Village Project, Mike greatly expanded the extent of SVP’s reach and implemented another 12 projects in Senegal reaching approximately 3000 people.

Washington D.C. 2017 In June of 2017 Solar Village Project in conjunction with the Salvation Army Grate Patrol began distributing solar lanterns to the homeless population in the Washington D.C. area. So far 800 lanterns have been distributed which have helped provide the homeless a greater sense of security at night

The rapid expansion in Senegal and the homeless distributions has taken up almost all of Mike’s time and energy, and has led him to a decision to create a separate organization dedicated to these efforts. Starting in May of 2018 the Senegal projects and the Washington D.C. homeless lantern distribution will be implemented and administered directly through our partner organization, The Solar Empowerment Initiative.

FUTURE PLANS Our new partnerships developed this past year with the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policy of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS-ISEP) and Nuera Solar have the potential to make a significant impact on our core mission. In early 2018 SVP will be implementing another Solar Village Project in India in conjunction with SAIS-ISEP that will focus on evaluating the overall impact of access to solar on impoverished households. SVP will manage the distribution, while ISEP will be conducting a multi-stage survey over the course of two months to determine the perceptions and impact of access to electricity from solar on productivity and the quality of life within individual households. Advice based on ISEP’s research has already produced one small but effective change in SVP practices. We now distribute more powerful lights, and not small hand-held lanterns, on the basis of studies that show villagers find these more effective and valuable pieces of solar hardware. This initial collaborative project, covering 200 homes, will generate data that will allow ISEP and SVP to assess the effectiveness of our projects, and provide guidance for future initiatives. We look forward as well to increasing our collaboration with the residential solar installer, Nuera Solar, a Utah-based startup company. Through their Nuera Gives program the company has established a “buy one give one” principle, which means they will donate $50 to SVP for every installation of a solar array on a home or business. With Nuera’s support we are looking to expand the scope of our projects to include much needed solar water pumps and filters in our project villages. Villagers in all the SVP projects have expressed the need for clean water since we began work in 2013. According to Wateraid.org “The health burden of poor water quality is enormous. It is estimated that around 37.7 million Indians are affected by waterborne diseases annually, 1.5 million children are estimated to die of diarrhea alone and 73 million working days are lost due to waterborne disease each year.” With our presence already firmly established in several communities we are well placed to address this issue by bringing solarpowered pumps and to alleviate the problem of contaminated drinking water. In the coming year, with the help of our benefactors and collaborators, we look forward to continuing our work in using solar technology to provide the basic resources for those most in need.