Lesotho
Recognizing the need for energy in developing countries and the potential for distributed co-generation schemes to address these needs, the World Bank Development Marketplace awarded STG a grant in 2006 to build and install two pilot systems in Lesotho, southern Africa. In September 2006, the field team of four STG engineers began an 11-month stay in Lesotho to implement this project which has led, over the past 7 years, to a number of ongoing partnerships with groups in the region, including the Government of Lesotho, NGOs, and potential for-profit partners. Work in Lesotho has focused on technology development, field testing, training, and support of a burgeoning local enterprise, founded in 2010 to collaborate with STG in this work
India
India has the largest number of unelectrified rural schools and clinics of any single country in the world, and despite the fact that the terrain in some states makes grid extension prohibitively expensive, the Government of India has commited to electrifying even the most remote parts of the country. This makes India a particularly receptive market for renewable energy options, especially those which can be used to support localized mini-grids, and the excellent solar resources in the rugged northern states will make solar relatively competitive with other technologies. In 2013, STG began a partnership with IISc Bangalore to conduct research on concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies for India and is exploring other partnerships for local commercialization of our Solar ORC.