RuralLight’s pilot sites are in Mambugsay and Murcia, Negros Occidental where a facility with solar panels was set-up by a partner non-profit to lemongrass oil. This facility supports farmers earning capacity by providing them an income with the lemongrass oil that they produce. Previously, these farmers subsisted on harvesting sugar cane, a monocrop. This only allowed them to earn once a year. With lemongrass, they can now earn year-round and sustain their their families through this initiative. RuralLights get lemongrass oil that is produced in the facilities that use solar power and sell them in the local marketplace. The electricity that is provided helps distill and store the oil in the facility. Further, this facility provided an opportunity for the farmers to learn a new trade and thus earn more income. So far, we have helped 30 farmers that distill lemongrass oil. Being heads of the families, 30 families are affected by our intervention. There is a USD 18.45 increase in additional wages. The community producers used to earn USD 18.45 per month and now earns USD 36.90. This amount equates to 2 liters of lemongrass oil produced by each farmer.

As we know, adding electricity for lighting increases business hours. In the Philippines, electricity increases this by 48 more hours. What our service also provide is an increase in income for individuals in the communities that we serve, thus helping in poverty alleviation.

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The intended project sites are rural communities (“barangays”). Each barangay is constituted by 30 to 40 households. RuralLight will have at least 1 pilot site for the first year. Shortly thereafter, we will be setting up business in at least 10 other rural communities. RuralLight’s target customers are rural folks who do not have electricity in the places where they work and live or are using renewable energy resources and still lack information delivery services. The people who live in these villages look for extended study time, use of electrified facilities throughout the day for extended capacity (i.e. cold storage for food, food grinding equipment) and a charging facility for their rechargeable items like mobile phones.

As of September 2006, the Philippines has electrified a total of 39,545 barangays (villages) out of a total of 41,945 barangays through the Enhanced Rural Electrification program. The last remaining villages, which are islands and mountainous towns, are considered to be a problem for the Philippine government because the extension of the grid would be too costly. The Philippine government recognizes that this cannot be done with the normal power services provided on a top-down scale (i.e. electricity from power plants) but see that this can be coursed through the development of indigenous energy infrastructure (i.e. solar, wind, microhydro power generation). Even though the government plans to develop and have 100% electrification, it will still be by 2017.