Idea 424 of 500. Cluster 21: Energy, water and waste at small scale
LED and efficient-lighting retrofits sold to the factories and the temples
The mechanism, from the book
The sun shines on every roof and the island imports its fuel.
Every idea in cluster 21 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Count the light fittings in one garment or food factory and one temple, with the permission of the manager and the trustees, and note the type and the hours each one burns. Work out what the bill would fall by with efficient lamps, then offer to fit them at cost and take a share of the saving for a year. The proof is one signed retrofit order.
- Who pays first
- A factory manager who runs lights through long shifts and wants a lower bill without spending capital, paid from the saving itself.
- What leaves today
- Inefficient lighting burns power made from imported fuel; every retrofit cuts a bill that ultimately leaves the island as foreign exchange.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. FourteenThe List
Energy: first, stop importing it
More from cluster 21
- 411Rooftop solar leasing for households, paid from the electricity bill
- 412Solar-powered cold rooms for the fishing harbours and the farms
- 413Biogas plants for the dairy and pig farms, with the gas sold locally
- 414Rainwater-harvesting installation for the dry-zone villages and the hotels
- 415Waste-collection and recycling businesses in the tourist towns, paid by the businesses they serve
- 416Composting of hotel and market waste into a branded soil product
Idea 424 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.