The success of renewable energy is "not an issue of technology, but an issue of a business plan," said Nitin Desai, UN Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, during a discussion on obstacles preventing more widespread use of renewable energy.

"When energy companies want to invest in conventional fossil fuel power plant there are many ways in which it can get financing," said Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell Group and head of the G-8 task force on renewable energy. "...This is much more difficult in small scale rural electrification." These companies get loans through export credit agencies, he said.

He added, "The biggest market is in the developing countries."

The UN estimates that 2 billion people lack access to electricity and the lion's share of these people are found in remote rural areas of the poorest countries. Proponents of renewable energy have said it is too expensive to get these people on conventional energy grids because of the high costs of building the infrastructure. The solution they argued is pushing solar energy in these areas.

Syda Bbumba, Uganda's Minister of Energy, agreed that there are opportunities in her country. Only 1 percent of people in rural areas of Uganda have access to electricity, she said. This combined with the fact that Uganda receives upwards of 14 hours of sunlight during parts of the year makes for a good opportunity to take advantage of solar energy, she said.

But, most Ugandans and others rural poor can not afford the cost of buying their own solar photovoltaic systems, she added. The average price for a system to power several light bulbs in a home is as much as $600 to $800. That price tag is more than twice the per capita gross national product of Uganda.

"One must go without eating" to afford a system, said Bbumba.

Moody-Stuart agreed that "high upfront costs are barriers" to the success of these products. He added, that people on grid power in cities do not bear the burden of these costs.

He said that, "If we want to drag the costs down, we have to expand the market."

Another problem faced by using solar energy in these remote areas is if the systems breakdown no one is around to repair them, said Bbumba. Cost is not the only problem. Most rural people have no way to obtain credit from banks, said Bbumba. Banks are unlikely to finance small business to invest in renewable energy, she said, because they feel investing in solar energy is too risky. Micro-credit programs often require monthly payments on loans when, Bbumba noted, those receiving loans income is seasonal.

Because the private sector is less likely to invest in renewable energy projects in the poorest countries, development institutions need to help make up the gap, said Moody-Stuart.

Institutions like the Global Environment Facility (GEF) need to help finance these projects, he said. According to GEF, it has funded $580 million in grants for renewable energy projects and co-financed $2.5 billion in projects in 56 developing countries. GEF was launched in 1994 to provide financing for projects, implemented by organizations like the UN Development Programme, in areas such as biodiversity, climate change, pollution of international waters, and ozone depletion.

Despite all these barriers there are examples of some successful solar energy projects in poor countries on a fee-for-service basis. Moody-Stuart's own Shell has started a venture in South Africa. For $10 per month, Shell is providing solar energy powered electricity to some 50,000 households in the eastern Cape of South Africa with the help of a local utility company called Eskom. Eskom helps to maintain the systems.

In the Dominican Republic, the US firm Soluz charges from $10 to $20 per month for electricity service from solar energy systems it operates. As of last year it was selling more than 1,700 customers electricity from solar energy on the fee-for-service basis, according to the company. Soluz's investment has not been profitable yet, but expects to breakeven with 5,000 customers. It is looking to bring the concept into Central America and has received $1 million in debt and equity financing from GEF and the International Finance Corporation [the private sector financing arm of the World Bank].

According to Jose Goldemberg, a professor at the Univesity of Sao Paulo in Brazil and chair of the World Energy Assessment, pushing renewable energy is crucial to a sustainable energy policy. Fossil fuels are the main contributors to degradation of the environmental and human health and they pose serious problems with respect to security of their supply, he said.

However, renewable energy such as solar and wind power accounted for only 2.2 percent of the world's energy supply in 1998, according to the 2000 World Energy Assessment.

But, more sustainable sources of energy have to come from somewhere, argued Goldemberg. He added, the fact that energy demand by developing countries is growing at a rate of 4 percent annually compared to 1 percent annually only means energy insecurity and environmental degradation will be exacerbated.

"In 15 years, the developing countries will be consuming as much energy as the developed countries," said Goldemberg.