Pico Solar PV: the first step towards achieving rural electrification

World over 1.4 billion people have no access to electricity. and about 2.7 billion depend on traditional biomass for their cooking energy. Bringing it closer to home, our Uganda depends heavily on tradition biomass, up to 92% of our energy is from traditional biomass exploited in wasteful ways leading to vegetation loss of up to 80,00 hectares per year! At this rate it is expected that by 2030 we may have absolutely nothing in form of biomass to depend on.

Our good policies, like the renewable energy policy for Uganda and the National Development Plan are yet to effectively improve the situation for a number of reasons:

1. The investment to put these wonderful plans in to actions with great impacts is not yet there. you may say that the 800billion allocated to Karuma and the current investment in Bujagali are signs of fundamental change, but I dare say they are not enough. Our industries can't wait for these developments to be commissioned so as to shut down their emergency generators which they currently run for at times 50% of the operational time. very little may change in the medium term especially for the households.
2. Even if Karuma is to come online next year [which is impossible, of course] my mother will not have electricity, simply because she cannot afford it. Besides, stories in the media recently showed that power tariffs may go up instead of the much needed reductions. Experts have also advised against power subsidies from government, meaning that even for those who are currently enjoying the electricity service, the going is just about to get tougher.
   
3. I know of households across northen Uganda and most of rural Uganda in general still living in huts, accessed using foot paths and with just about enough schooling to get them to count. How would these benefit from grid electricity even if it was offered freely?

Simple suggestions to increasing rural electrification and save lives

1. There is need for extension services in the energy sector. these services would go along way in increasing awareness on advantages of switching to morden energy services. This would help stimulate demand for pico solar PV products across the country and reduce importation of expensive, polluting kerosene, a contributor to over 1.4 million deathe worldwide due to indoor air pollution.
2. Government and private sector together with donor communities should put the pico solar PV systems dissemination agenda at the forefront of their development strategy. A typical system costs from as low as 35,000 shillings. It is safe and not polluting. It can be used for over 2 years maintainance free. And, it offer better lighting than the common kerosene lamps on market. This initial investment, comapred to the benefits is a small price to pay. Government should attract investment in this area as a stepping stone to achieving rural electrification. Overall, at average price of 70,000 per household, total investment of 420 billion would ensure that every Ugandan household is rid of the kerosene lamp. Compared with the 1.2 billion dollar Karuma project [to be comissioned in about 5 years] this is surely a low hanging fruit
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4. Through SACCOs and MFIs, the costs for such replacements could be recovered in about 2 years. even poor households may have means to repay if good payment terms are enforced to ensure fairness in the transactions of these instituions.
5. Donor support to such projects would also go a long way in expediting the electrification of country - a benefit towards achieving MDGs
   

Technologies
A number of start-up companies in Uganda are vending pico solar products. Many of these originate from India, china and other Asian countries. Recent studies in Uganda show that some products are not genuine - spoiling markets for genuine products. Government ought to come out strongly and enforce standards on pico solar PV equipment/ product to ensure value for money. This would increase consumer confidence in these relatively new technologies across systems.

There is a need to promote products with modular designs, this increases markets for the products as customers choose to scale up from one room lit to several over time. These would also be useful in situation where demand are so very - which is true for Uganda.

Conclusions

1. As we await the commissioning of the big power projects, the communities continue to suffer from impacts of use of kerosene lamps. Even if these grid electrification was to happen, it's reach and use in rural communities would remain a dream because communities are not ready.
   
2. The communities need extension services on modern energy options / solutions.
   
3. Simple steps to improving livelihoods would start from pico solar PV and gradually move to main stream solar/ wind/ off grid hydro then on grid hydro, all these steps guided by demand resulting from appreciation of each intermediate step.
4. Pico solar solutions therefore provides the key to mass rural electrification as a first step towards on grid electrification processes.
5. Technology options for dissemination need to be approved by local and international standards agencies to reduce cases of fake products on the market.