Capetonian Roy Dibley runs his 1980s diesel Mercedes on used vegetable oil, collecting it from restaurants in and around Cape Town. Sometimes he pays for it (R1.50 a litre, which is its price as an additive to animal feed). Sometimes he gets it for nothing.

Dibley reckons it costs him about 50c a litre to filter it before he can put it in his tank - which explains the sticker on the rear of his Merc which announcess that he is running his car on fuel that costs R2 a litre, and that anyone interested in doing the same should ring his cellphone number.

Dibley is a qualified mechanical engineer who designs, builds and sells conversion kits for diesel engines to run on vegetable oil (after filtering) - used, or neat, straight out of the bottle.

The kits, which have been extensively tested in South Africa, are now available from Dibley, and he hopes they will prove a boon to farmers large and small, to operators of hotel courtesy buses and, as he puts it, small operators like plumbers and electricians.

One of his first kits, which he fitted to an electrician's 280KB diesel bakkie, is performing well. The success of these prototypes led to the formation of a business partnership between Dibley, Stuart Freedman (based in Britain) and Valentine Lefrère, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Dibley's vision of the product's potential is broader than the luxury market of campers, converted buses or diesel Winnebagos, if there are such things.

Solar Cookers International assists communities to use the power of the sun to cook food and pasteurize water for the benefit of people and environments. The organization has built and maintains a network of nearly 1,000 independent promoters of solar cooking worldwide. Information is gathered and shared through two web sites, conferences, the Solar Cooker Review. Tens of thousands of people have learned how to make and use solar cookers for cooking, water pasteurizing and many business uses through SCI's publications. Other products include teaching curricula, training guides, a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) and various solar cookers.

In 1997, the NEF began working with 7 villages in Northern Morocco to promote female education and leadership by organizing local literacy initiatives and associating groups of rural women leaders.

The program has since expanded to 15 villages, and in collaboration with the U.S. State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), NEF seeks to establish income-generating projects with one or more parent-teacher associations (PTAs) within these communities.

MIGHTYLIGHT is a simple-to-use, long-life, environmental friendly, pollution free, multi-purpose light using not only solar power but also most innovatively using a high technology, extremely energy efficient LED as its light source. This LED consumes only 1 Watt power and is rated to last 100,000 hours i.e. more than 30 years at the rate of 8 hour consumption per day (instead of conventional bulbs that consume much more power and fuse often).

Of the half a million or so villages in India, about 310,000 villages have been declared to be electrified and 80,000 more villages remain completely un-electrified.

Decentralised Energy Systems India (DESI) runs a "Village EmPower Partnership project" to help provide energy and jobs in rural villages of India in an environmentally sustainable way. Each small biomass
power plant (100kw) built by DESI is owned by a village cooperative and creates at least 50 direct and indirect jobs per village. The increased income particularly helps improve the health and overall quality of life for women, while also increasing farm output and incomes.

Founded by three Dutch men in 2005, Kamworks is a Cambodian company that aims at the production and sales of solar energy and other off-grid systems to promote rural development through commercial activity in Cambodia.

Kamworks produces an ultra-high efficiency solar fridge and freezer, a community solar electricity generator, and "Angkor light," a portable solar lantern.

Kamworks has been announced as a winner in the World Bank Development Marketplace Competition with an innovative distribution model for the Angkor Light, in a joint project together with the Khmer Foundation for Justice Peace and Development.