Cambodia eyes bright solar future with tuk-tuks and microfinance By Astrid Zweynert

PHNOM PEHN, Oct 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Outside the buzzing Russian Market, one of Phnom Penh's top tourist attractions, Win Soeun sells coffee from a sky-blue tuk-tuk in the searing midday heat.

The coffee cart, an adapted auto rickshaw, is run by Aziza's Place, a social business that provides work to women like Win Soeun who used to scavenge at a rubbish dump in the Cambodian capital to make a living for herself and her five children.

Powered by solar panels on its roof, the tuk-tuk is not just part of a project bringing hope to disadvantaged women, but a vivid symbol of Cambodia's potential to become a solar powerhouse.

The tuk-tuk, which can run at speeds of up to 37 miles per hour (67 kilometres per hour), is the brainchild of Australian company Star8, which recently opened a factory - the city's first solar-powered building - in Phnom Penh.

With an average of 5.5 hours of sunshine per day throughout the year and high levels of solar radiation even when it is cloudy, Cambodia is highly suitable for solar power, the Asian Development Bank said in a report earlier this year.

"The potential for Cambodia to become a solar power is huge, given how much solar radiation you get here all year round," said Phil Stone, Star8's managing director. "But the challenges are large too."

The falling cost of solar technology, which has dropped in some countries to around $0.13 to $0.15 per kilowatt hour, less than the cost of grid power in many parts of Cambodia, adds to the attraction.

But awareness of solar energy and technical know-how are still low in Cambodia, one of Southeast Asia's poorest nations, Stone said.

Read more : http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/10/22/cambodia-solar-idUKL8N12J2KH20151022