Africa looks to solar for communities off the grid

AFP, NAIROBI: Above the sacks of seeds and coal, three kerosene lamps gather dust in the tiny shed that Kenyan chicken farmer Bernard 
calls home.
He prefers to use solar energy to light up his evenings, listen to the radio or watch television, after abandoning a diesel generator he said was expensive to maintain and burned fuel too quickly.
“Solar panels are a good, cheap solution,” he told AFP.
Across the continent, consumers are opting for their own off-grid solar solutions to power homes and small businesses, even as African governments unveil massive new solar projects seemingly every month to expand their grids.
According to International Energy Agency projections, almost one billion people in sub-Saharan Africa will gain access to the grid by 2040, but by that time 530 million will remain off-grid, almost comparable with the 600 million who cannot access power today.
Governments have ramped up their efforts: on Africa’s Atlantic coast, Senegal last month inaugurated a massive 20 megawatt (MW) project that will deliver energy to 160,000 people, which President Macky Sall saluted as ushering in “a new, clean-energy era”. But   Mouhamadou Makhtar Cisse, director-general of national utility Senelec, underlined upcoming problems in an interview with AFP.
“We actually have an excess of 100MW of power,” he said. “But we have a distribution problem. We have been thinking in terms of roads and railways... but not about electricity highways.”
With around 55 to 65 per cent of homes receiving electricity, Senegal’s grid strength is above average for sub-Saharan Africa, whereas in South Sudan and Liberia this hovers between one and two per cent.
But even in Senegal, neighbouring Mauritania and Rwanda, which have all invested in large-scale solar projects as the cost of panels tumble, the twin challenges of limited grids and Africa’s demographics remain.       
“The grid and the off-grid are so far apart right now that it’s creating a huge space for innovation,” enthuses Andrew Herscowitz, coordinator for US President Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative.

Africa looks to solar for communities off the grid

AFP, NAIROBI: Above the sacks of seeds and coal, three kerosene lamps gather dust in the tiny shed that Kenyan chicken farmer Bernard calls home. He prefers to use solar energy to light up his evenings, listen to the radio or watch television, after abandoning a diesel generator he said was expensive to maintain and burned fuel too quickly. Solar panels are a good, cheap solution, he told AFP. Across the continent, consumers are opting for their own off-grid solar solutions to power homes and small businesses, even as African governments unveil massive new solar projects seemingly every month to expand their grids. According to International Energy Agency projections, almost one billion people in sub-Saharan Africa will gain access to the grid by 2040, but by that time 530 million will remain off-grid, almost comparable with the 600 million who cannot access power today. Governments have ramped up their efforts: on Africas Atlantic coast, Senegal last month inaugurated a massive 20 megawatt (MW) project that will deliver energy to 160,000 people, which President Macky Sall saluted as ushering in a new, clean-energy era. But Mouhamadou Makhtar Cisse, director-general of national utility Senelec, underlined upcoming problems in an interview with AFP. We actually have an excess of 100MW of power, he said. But we have a distribution problem. We have been thinking in terms of roads and railways... but not about electricity highways. With around 55 to 65 per cent of homes receiving electricity, Senegals grid strength is above average for sub-Saharan Africa, whereas in South Sudan and Liberia this hovers between one and two per cent. But even in Senegal, neighbouring Mauritania and Rwanda, which have all invested in large-scale solar projects as the cost of panels tumble, the twin challenges of limited grids and Africas demographics remain. The grid and the off-grid are so far apart right now that its creating a huge space for innovation, enthuses Andrew Herscowitz, coordinator for US President Barack Obamas Power Africa initiative.