Identifying, developing, and moving sustainable communities through renewable energy

Purpose – Much of the resources for mitigating the impact of poverty found their way into new technologies or programs that aimed to provide energy access to the poor in the “bottom of the pyramid” (BOP). Thus billions have been spent and will be spent on projects such as expensive line extensions or solar panels to the poor living in “last mile” communities. The purpose of this paper is to review the traditional responses to income and energy poverty, and describe a sustainable community model to address the poor at the BOP. Design/methodology/approach – This paper looks at the approaches that have been tried in making a dent in the poverty incidence in households living in last mile, BOP areas in the Philippines and posits the critical question of why these approaches have failed despite successes in the more economically positioned strata of society. After identifying the critical variables that militate against the successful programs, the authors seek to proscribe a separate methodology for intervent...