Thanks to a REEEP project, cash-poor Pacific island villagers who often have no access to banking systems are able to trade cassava, dalo, bananas and other crops as payments for an LED solar lighting system to replace kerosene lanterns. This also leads to a considerable savings in fuel costs: in the Solomon Islands, kerosene will cost a typical household the equivalent of about €0.63 per day, while the value of the crops traded for solar LED amounts to less than half that, at €0.28 per day.

On 17 June 2009, Kazakhstan’s Parliament passed the final amendments to a Law on the Use of Renewable Energy Sources, which establishes a full regulatory framework for renewables in that country: the result of a REEEP-funded project implemented by UNDP.

The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Engineering (CAAE) and Environmental and Energy Development Consulting Ltd. (EED) have released a REEEP-funded report “National Action Plan for Rural Biomass Renewable Energy Development in China”, which provides detailed measures to enable China to achieve its biomass development target in the medium and long term.

Tamil Nadu is investing in energy efficiency in the state’s water services and street lighting in 29 of its 45 city authorities. Power bills typically represent 40-60% of the total costs of running urban water plants.