Graduation Date: 2009
M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering; B.A. Economics

Sam’s primary responsibility was to develop a financial scheme under which some aspect of BGET’s operations could be made self-sustaining, that is, independent of grant funding. He settled on a program to repair the solar home systems installed in 2004 and 2005. The Thai government installed these systems on 200,000 remote households without other sources of electricity.

Because little provision was made for maintenance and because component warranties have now expired, the vast majority of the systems are no longer fully operational. Sam designed two financial models that allow BGET to repair these systems affordably for villagers without much cash flow, while still providing enough revenue to keep the system operating. First, BGET can perform repairs as a kind of microfinance loan, with the household paying off the cost over time. Second, BGET can operate an “insurance” scheme, collecting small monthly payments in exchange for fixing any problems that occur. After creating these scenarios he wrote a business plan that BGET is submitting for consideration for seed investments to various organizations. If all goes well, a pilot project will be underway by the middle of 2010 and will be operational in 2011.

"BGET presents an incredible opportunity for a Stanford student interested in distributed generation, renewable energy, and the links between energy and development to get their hands dirty and see how energy projects really get done."

Sam Shrank

"[Sam] had the essential qualifications to contribute to the work and other team members. He also helped create the dynamic work environment."

Salinee Tavaranan, Project Director
Border Green Energy Team