 In addition to his research and development programme, Dharmadasa is heavily involved in and passionate about promoting the use of renewable energy for the alleviation of poverty and economic development.He was one of the founding members of the South Asia renewable Energy programme which is now becoming an international programme for the promotion of renewables [5-7].As a Sri Lankan from a rural village in the Kurunagala District, he has taken back his knowledge to his village, recently setting up machinery to provide several local villages with free drinking water by replacing an expensive diesel pump with a solar powered motor.