Solar power meets mobile phone technology and solves community water access problems in Kenya? Generally we leave international solar news in Connie’s capable hands, but after stumbling across this, I couldn’t resist sharing. Vodafone and African telecommunications company Safaricom developed the M-PESA phone-based money transfer system to enable customers to transfer funds via text message, essentially, without requiring bank accounts. But the M-PESA sytem may be doing more than move money about Kenya in the near future: it might be moving water.

To address concerns about mismanagement of water resources, up to twenty Kenyan communities will test a water-vending system this coming year. The system allows users to access and pay for well water by using a smart card which can be recharged via mobile phone. The wells? Solar powered.

This is taking an abundant resource in a region (sunshine) and using it to manage a scarce one (water). I think this is a great example of how solar energy’s performance on a small scale can provide great benefits on an individual or community level.