This is an IHeart podcast.

I'm Maeve Higgins and this is Solvable.

Interviews with the world's most innovative thinkers who are working to solve the world's biggest problems.

My solvable is to take energy to where communities are.

We are not going to solve poverty in the 21st century if we don't solve energy poverty.

This is a truly energizing conversation between Anne Applebaum and Ashvin Dyal about,

well, energy. The solvable this episode is how to bring reliable electricity to rural communities

across India and Africa. Ashvin leads the Rockefeller Foundation's effort to not only end energy poverty,

but also to unleash economic opportunity. Across the world, 1.2 billion people do not have

electricity. If you've experienced living without electricity, even for a day or two, you'll know how frustrating it is,

how small tasks suddenly become huge and everything takes so much longer.

On a bigger scale, energy poverty is a massive impediment to sustained economic and social growth.

The alternatives to electricity are not ideal. Nearly 3 billion people

cook or heat their homes by burning polluting fuels like wood, and of course that results in air

pollution that causes widespread health problems. Now things are improving, just slowly. According to the latest data from the UN,

85% of the global population now has access to basic electricity services.

Mostly this has been down to government's efforts in extending national grids,

as well as some off-grid decentralized projects.

But for Ashven Dyal, the challenge is to reach every last person.

Ashvin leads the Rockefeller Foundation's Global Smart Power Initiative. He has overseen the Foundation's

investments in renewable energy mini-grids in India and is working to achieve electrification for

everybody in India no matter where they achieve electrification for everybody in India, no matter where

...