Addressing energy poverty in Cambodia and Myanmar through renewable energy services

Korean social enterprise Energy Farm ensures a higher quality of life with renewable energy-based facilities and services.

Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, 29 January 2021 – Korean social enterprise Energy Farm is an inclusive business providing renewable energy-based access to electricity for vulnerable individuals in Cambodia and Myanmar.

In Cambodia, nearly 5 million people (one-third of the population) have no access to grid electricity and are reliant on car batteries, wood and other traditional fuels for energy. Similarly, in Myanmar, it is estimated that around 10 million to 15 million people (30 percent of the population) still have no access to electricity and around 12 million rely on traditional biomass for lighting and cooking.

While there is more spending power and demand for electricity in rural areas in these countries, electricity supply through the national central power grid is limited due to the high cost of building transmission lines that reach remote areas.

To tackle this problem, Energy Farm provides sustainable solar generating systems, known as Solar Home Systems (SHS), through an affordable monthly instalment plan. By partnering with local organizations on the ground, Energy Farm has been able to widen its reach to low-income customers in rural areas. Energy Farm’s Solar Home Systems create both cost and time savings for its customers as they enable the use of electronic devices over traditional methods for household tasks. Instead of investing time and labour into tasks like collecting firewood and cooking, customers can dedicate their resources to more profitable and educational opportunities. The solar energy products also provide easy access to light during night time.

The company has committed to providing 10,000 vulnerable individuals in Cambodia and Myanmar with energy solutions by 2021.

In addition to saving time for housework, our customers increase efficiency in their small business operations, points out Dae Guy Kim, CEO of Energy Farm. “A Cambodian woman earning her living by sewing bought our Solar Energy Home system and has dramatically increased her output with an electronic sewing machine. She now earns double her previous income,” says Kim.

“Without Energy Farm’s solution, its customers would have had much more restricted access to clean energy and electricity, negatively impacting quality of life and livelihoods. Energy Farm helps low-income consumers not only access cleaner energy and therefore improved health conditions, but also enables productive work and time saving for many,” says Head of Business Call to Action, Luciana Aguiar.

For further information:
BCtA: bcta@undp.org
Energy Farm: info@energyfarm.kr

BCtA membership does not constitute a partnership with its funding and programme partners, UNDP or any UN agency.

About Business Call to Action (BCtA): Launched at the United Nations in 2008, BCtA aims to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by challenging companies to develop inclusive business models that offer the potential for both commercial success and development impact. BCtA is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND). For more information, please visit www.businesscalltoaction.org.

About Energy Farm: Energy Farm Co., Ltd. is a social enterprise (certified by the Ministry of Employment of the Republic of Korea and Labor as of 2015) that provides renewable energy-based facilities and services so that vulnerable individuals and communities in the Republic of Korea and developing countries can have better access to energy, educational opportunities and quality of life.