Portland, Ore.—September 26, 2007—The Lemelson Foundation will announce a commitment of $2 million to the focus area of energy and climate change at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, scheduled for September 26-28, 2007 in New York. The portfolio of projects will test for-profit and non-profit models that deliver energy technologies and services to those earning less than two dollars a day. The Foundation will align its financing—a combination of grants, loans and equity investments—with the specific needs of individual implementing organizations, including E+Co, Emergence BioEnergy Inc., Envirofit International Ltd., Solar Electric Light Company-India and IDEAAS.
Envirofit International, a non-profit organization in Colorado, will use funding from the Lemelson Foundation to install direct-injection retrofit kits on 3,000 two-stroke motorcycle taxi engines in Vigan, Philippines by 2010—eliminating 3,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide and infusing the local economy with $1.4 million in fuel cost savings. Each retrofit kit reduces two-stroke engine emissions by 75 to 90 percent and increases fuel efficiency by 35 to 50 percent, thereby saving 120 gallons of fuel per year. The $350 retrofit kit can be financed through a micro-finance loan, which is easily paid off by drivers within a year by the more than $500 in annual fuel savings. Envirofit, which estimates that the production, installation and servicing of these engines will create 50 local jobs, is aiming for full-scale market penetration in the Philippines, where over 1.8 million two-stroke vehicles are in use, and expansion to other global markets.
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