Kenya A Race to Electrification Powered by the Sun

Previous research on the diffusion of solar PV in Africa has mainly focused on solar home systems (SHS) in individual countries and thus overlooked developments in other PV market segments that have recently emerged. In contrast this paper adopts a regional perspective by reviewing developments in supportive policies, donor programs and diffusion status in all PV market segments in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as identifying the key factors put forward in the literature to explain differences in the diffusion of SHS in these three countries. The paper finds two emerging trends: (i) a movement from donor and government-based support to market-driven diffusion of solar PV; and (ii) a transition from small-scale, off-grid systems towards mini-grids and large-scale, grid-connected solar power plants. The paper points out three generic factors that have contributed to encouraging SHS diffusion in all three countries: (i) the decline in world market prices for PV modules; (ii) the prolonged support from international donors; and (iii) conducive framework conditions provided by national governments. The paper also identifies five key factors that have been elaborated in the literature to explain the higher level of SHS diffusion in Kenya compared to Tanzania and Uganda: (i) a growing middle-class; (ii) geographical conditions; (iii) local sub-component suppliers; (iv) local champions; and (v) business culture. Finally, the paper discusses the lack of attention in the literature given to analysing the amount, nature and timing of donor and government support across countries, processes of learning and upgrading in local PV industries and the interaction between the different explanatory factors.

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While the diffusion of solar home systems in Kenya has been market-based for some years, the diffusion of PV in most other Sub-Saharan African countries has been driven by government and donor-supported projects aimed at serving specific needs for electricity while at the same time creating a national niche market for PV. This practice is rapidly changing and, as in industrialised countries, there is evidence of a transition towards more market-based diffusion and private-sector involvement for PV systems for private consumers, institutions and villages. This transition has been facilitated to varying degrees by conducive enabling frameworks comprising innovative financing schemes, exemptions from VAT and import taxes, standardised power-purchasing agreements and feed-in tariffs. Few analyses have so far been conducted on the effects of such measures. This paper aims to contribute to understanding these effects by reviewing the development of markets for solar PV in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, focusing on how the differences in market development have been explained in the literature. The paper finds that, although Tanzania and Uganda are rapidly catching up, Kenya is still leading the development of PV markets not only in terms of installed capacity and market volume, but also with regard to local industry and PV business development. The paper concludes by drawing attention to particular factors that have been used in the literature to explain disparities in market-development trajectories in the three countries.

This paper provides a detailed review of the status of rural electrification outside South Asia with an emphasis on off-grid electrification. It covers the experience from other Asian countries such as China, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, countries from South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The review has covered both successful cases and not-sosuccessful cases and an attempt has been made to capture any significant development at the regional level and where appropriate, references to country cases have been made.

Solar Home Systems (SHS) in rural developing country-settings, after years of experimentation to fine tune technical design, regulation and business models, have recently found significant success as ongoing implementation in Bangladesh illustrates. The success also owes a great deal to a reduction in solar panel costs. These cost declines also make a strong case for electrification at larger scales, such as mini-grids. Such systems can additionally benefit from the natural economies of scale that occur in power systems. As a result, mini-grids can provide services: to significantly improve energy access at a lower (per unit) cost, are fully competitive with diesel or kerosene systems, can be used as part of hybrid systems, can take advantage of existing supply chains and machinery, have power quality comparable to grid power, and are compatible with grid power if or when it arrives to a locality. In this paper, we argue that the time is ripe for development programs to begin seguing to mini-grids from smaller systems in order to best provide much needed services at scale and catalyze economic development.

2011

There is a well-developed literature on the experience of rural electrification and the experiments being carried out for ensuring universal access to electricity. Although this research project is about South Asia, the experience of other countries and regions can be helpful in identifying options, for developing viable solutions and for formulating policies through a process of cross-learning.

Strategic Feasibility Study (SFS) for Africa refers to the Road Map (RM) for Africa completed in March, 2011. RM defines Self-Powered Community (SPC) to meet rural and peri-urban areas electrification needs, and the SFS is analyzing opportunities for new renewable energy sources, systems and technologies for countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. We have had the opportunity to be in a close contact with our partners from Kenya and Ethiopia.

This paper provides a detailed review on the status of rural electrification in South Asia with an emphasis on off-grid electrification and identifies best practices in off-grid electrification in the region. It presents a comparative and identifies the cross-learning potential at the country and regional level. It finds that most of the countries of the region have focused on grid extension and off-grid electrification has been used as a pre-electrification option. It also finds that South Asian countries have relied on a top-down approach for grid extensions, whereas off-grid electrification has generally been carried out mainly through communitybased projects. All rural electrification projects have involved significant amounts of subsidy, particularly for capital investment. Sri Lanka has achieved the highest level of electrification in the region by adopting targets and milestones for connecting rural households and arranging micro-lending for poor households. The study also confirms that it is possible to successfully implement off-grid programs in association with the private sector and microfinance institutions that operate in the rural areas. The study shows that there are no specific initiatives in the region to improve the overall household connection level except in Sri Lanka and that governments are not attempting distributed generation to enhance access utilizing the locally available resources in grid connected areas. It also suggests that a better understanding of the roles of main stakeholders and the suite of strategies that helped successful project implementation will be required to scale-up the efforts in the region.

International Review of Electrical Engineering (IREE), 2015

The slow growth in electricity production in the last four decades has left Sub-Saharan Africa region in partial darkness marked by unreliable power supplies and insufficient generating capacity. This has been the greatest barrier to the economic and industrial growth in this part of the world and has left many people, in search of a greener pasture in other regions. In the last few years, Sub-Saharan Africa started to provide opportunities for micro-grid (MG) initiative by bringing electricity access to remote rural and sub-urban communities in the region. The MG concept is seen as a viable energy strategy due to the fact that Africa is endowed with both renewable and non-renewable resources that are primary sources for MG. This paper reviews and discusses the MG idea, recent development of MG, in Sub-Saharan Africa, MG potential and pilot projects across some part of Sub-Saharan Africa. Also, the benefits, challenges and solutions for a successful MG implementation in the region are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Praise worthy Prize S.r.l. -All rights reserved.

Rural electrification is an integral component of poverty alleviation and rural development of a nation. In Bangladesh, photovoltaic (PV) technology in the form of solar home systems (SHS) has been widely applied for rural electrification purposes. This paper focuses on the prospects, constraints and solutions of photovoltaic (PV) market growth in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is known to possess a good potential for renewable energy, particularly solar energy that is abundant and can fruitfully be harnessed. Several private entrepreneurs, Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL), some government agencies and a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are working to install solar PV in rural Bangladesh to meet basic energy needs. The application of PV technology for rural electrification is indirectly increasing the income as well as the living standard of the rural poor. The paper will be organised in total seven sections. Section 1 and section 2 present the location and current status of Bangladesh, resource potential, objectives and market development. This is followed by analysis of solar PV in Bangladesh, including technical design, common PV use, IDCOL SHS program in Section 3. Section 4 identifies case studies and success stories of Bangladesh improving quality of life for project beneficiaries. Sections 5 and 6 include financing structure and SHS product features and prices. Section 7 is the important topic, where it is illustrated reducing subsidy is necessary and future plans on reducing subsidies, whereas Section 8 depicts the implementation challenges of solar PV. Finally, key conclusions are drawn in Section 9. The purpose of the paper is to present the case study of Bangladesh where Solar Home Systems installations has experienced explosive growth and created a $200 million PV market. The case of Bangladesh could be replicated and launched in other parts of Asia to bolster the PV market.