Feature Article
Bringing Light to the Powerless
Innovative microenterprise and credit strategies that allow villagers to purchase or lease small photovoltaic systems are changing lives in many developing countries.
by Laurie Stone

Imagine not being able to read or study after the sun sets, having to walk for hours to get drinking or washing water or having to strain your eyes to work under the dim light of a candle. This is the reality for the 2 billion people on the planet who do not have access to electricity.

Many of us in the industrialized world take electricity for granted. Even those of us who rely on renewable energy technologies to generate electricity use enough electricity in our homes to power an entire community in the developing world. These families are not asking for luxuries like dishwashers and air conditioners. In reality, just a small amount of power can have incredible impacts on people’s lives.

The largest application for electricity in the developing world is for household light. Although many people in rural areas of the developing world already have access to some form of light, it is usually not a high quality light. Throughout the world, children breathe the fumes of kerosene lanterns as they study, women strain their eyes working in candlelight and doctors perform operations by flashlight. In other areas, people have car batteries that run lights, a radio and even a TV.

In fact, 10 percent of unelectrified homes throughout the world use car batteries to provide electricity. However, they run these batteries down until they’re completely discharged, then take them by horseback, camelback or on their own backs, to the nearest electrified town to recharge. This deep recharging and discharging of car batteries leads to very short lives, and too soon the batteries become toxic waste added to the environment. Even where there is grid power in the developing world, it is often unreliable and frequently unsafe.

Solar home systems (SHS) with just one or two photovoltaic (PV) modules can provide enough electricity to power lights for studying, cooking, working and socializing. Many of these small SHS also power radios and televisions. The benefits of this small amount of electricity are numerous. Not only will it displace dangerous and unhealthy kerosene, but will also greatly improve education, health and economies. It particularly improves the lives and health of women and children.

Education & Health Improvements
Electricity not only allows children to study in the evening, but also gives children access to more information via computers, television and educational videos. In addition, evening adult education courses give illiterate adults a chance to learn to read.

Each year, three million children die from diseases that are preventable with currently available vaccines. For vaccines to remain potent, they must be stored at a certain temperature range, impossible to do without refrigeration. PV-powered vaccine refrigerators are small energy-efficient refrigerators that can be powered using just one or two small photovoltaic modules.
Photovoltaics can also power medical and dental equipment and water purification and desalination units, improving people’s health immensely. Because—unlike kerosene lamps and candles—PV panels produce no emissions, SHS can also reduce the incidence of respiratory infections and lung disease in these communities.

Economic Benefits
The economic impact of electricity in developing countries is enormous. In many rural areas, grain grinding, oil extracting and water pumping are all done by hand. Electricity can greatly increase the output of these activities. It can also help generate income by allowing people to start microenterprises, such as a handicrafts shop or bicycle repair shop. For example, a microenterprise that is proving successful in many parts of the world is battery-charging stations.

PV-powered battery charging stations eliminate the need to carry heavy batteries to a distant town to recharge. Customers pay a small fee to recharge their car batteries at a local shop. These stations are locally operated, creating employment opportunities and potential business opportunities for local entrepreneurs.

Soluz—Cash, Credit and Rental in the Dominican Republic & Honduras For the thousands of people without access to electricity in the Dominican Republic and Honduras, Soluz,Inc. offers a promising solution. Soluz is a business and technology development company helping meet the need for electricity in rural areas using a “wireless” approach to electrification. Soluz’s rural energy delivery companies in those two countries provide homeowners with small photovoltaic (PV) systems to run lights, a radio and a television. Although some homeowners can afford to buy a system with cash and others use some type of credit, about 50 percent of Soluz’ customers rent their systems. In the Dominican Republic, Soluz Dominicana is serving approximately 3500 households and small businesses. Fifteen hundred of those customers pay an unsubsidized monthly fee of between $10 and $20. For this monthly fee, the homeowner receives 40 to 50 watts of PV generated electricity, enough to run lights, a TV, a radio and occasionally a cell phone or computer. Local staff installs the system, collects the fees and provides all the maintenance. Soluz Honduras serves 2000 customers, a majority of whom use this same rental strategy. Soluz customers receive a higher quality of service than with traditional energy sources. They pay approximately the same amount per month that they would pay for kerosene and batteries, and they do not have to maintain the system themselves. By eliminating the need to extend the national electric grid, Soluz has reached households that would require about $2,000,000 in distribution infrastructure investment in Honduras alone. Replacing kerosene lanterns with PV also eliminates 400 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year for every 1500 customers.

Environmental Bonuses
Although the growth in solar home systems may increase the number of lead-acid batteries in use, it may actually result in a net reduction in the rate of battery disposal. This is due to the fact that rural households that already use car batteries are among the first to obtain PV systems. While batteries that are deeply discharged between charges may only last 12 months, a PV system may give car batteries a more advantageous charge and discharge profile that can extend their lives by 50 percent or more.

However, these obvious “first consequences” are not the only advantages that come when electricity arrives in rural areas. There are also secondary impacts, which are at times harder to quantify, but are equally important. Access to electricity has been shown to lower the birth rate, decrease alcoholism and lessen the emigration rate of people from rural areas to cities.

Education and health are not only improved due to access to better equipment, but also because of the fact that teachers and doctors from the city are willing to stay for longer periods of time in rural areas with more conveniences.

Women’s opportunities are greatly increased as well. Throughout the developing world, women have lower rates of literacy and fewer economic opportunities. Women are also the ones more involved with energy intensive activities. Hauling water, grinding grain, collecting firewood and cooking are all activities mainly performed by women. These household tasks can be made easier with renewable energy.

Affordable Power
Many rural people are already paying for light. Rural families around the world spend anywhere from $2 to $28 a month for kerosene and batteries. Some inventive organizations have figured out that for this same monthly price, these people can rent or eventually afford a solar home system.

Benefits of Electricity—CUBASOLAR Vladimir Diaz Denis and his wife went to work as a doctor and nurse in a small community in Cuba called El Mulato in 1988. The community of 400 had no electricity, and was so remote that when the health clinic was built in 1987, the building materials arrived by helicopter. In the first year of Vladimir’s work in El Mulato, the clinic had a kerosene lantern for light. At night he treated people with a flashlight. In 1989, CUBASOLAR, a non-governmental organization promoting the use of renewable energy in Cuba, decided to electrify El Mulato with photovoltaics (PV). Vladimir’s health clinic became the first health clinic in Cuba to be electrified with PV. Currently, over 300 rural family doctors’ clinics are electrified with PV. The electrification of the family doctors’ clinics has brought much more than improved health care to the mountains. Vladimir Diaz Denis has noted significant improvements in all areas of life. When Vladimir arrived in the small coffee- and fruit-producing community of El Mulato, there was not a single newspaper in the community. There were 6 pregnant girls under the age of 14, three of whom were under the age of 12. There were 11 children with learning disabilities, and 151 atrisk alcoholics. In 1989, CUBASOLAR installed a 48-module, 1.5-kilowatt PV system to provide electricity to the family doctor’s clinic, the community store, the community center and two houses. Separate 400-watt systems were installed on 30 other houses. Vladimir says the change in the community was striking. People’s health improved greatly with the vaccine refrigerator and electrical medical equipment. With access to outside information, education improved drastically. The teacher’s work was made much easier, and a new school was built. Of the 11 children with learning disabilities, only two of them remain at lower learning levels. There are now no teenage pregnancies, and less than 40 at-risk alcoholics, with only 5 serious alcoholism cases. Coffee and fruit production shot up. With the better health conditions and the increased opportunities for women that the electricity brought, the average birth rate went from 5 to 6 children per woman to 2 to 3. The emotional wellbeing of the children also improved. Vladimir noticed that the children no longer walk hunched over, but stand up straight. In photos taken in El Mulato before the electrification and after the electrification, even a casual observer notices the difference in the children. Vladimir attributes this to the culture that was brought into the community with the electricity. Now the children have access to the outside world, and also have more of an opportunity to socialize. This is not unique to El Mulato. Results like this can be found in hundreds of communities in Cuba and thousands more around the world.

Groups such as Enersol Associates and the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) have brought small solar home systems to thousands of people in Latin America and Asia using an innovative microcredit strategy. Starting with some seed money, these organizations provide credit for customers to purchase one and two panel systems that cost between US$400 and US$1000. Families make monthly payments, often paying the same amount they did for their kerosene and batteries. In three to seven years, they own their system. The payments are managed by a local organization, and are put back into a fund to provide credit for other system purchases.

Other organizations have figured out a way to get PV systems to even those who cannot afford these small monthly payments. The Himalayan Light Fund (HLF) provides villagers in
Nepal with solar electric systems and training in income generating activities such as weaving and thangka painting. The villagers repay the cost of the solar lighting system with their handicraft items. HLF also helps the recipients of the systems find a market for their products internationally.

Other organizations lease the solar home systems to homeowners. Although the PV system is installed on their roof, the homeowner never owns the system, but merely pays a monthly fee for the electricity they use. The company is in charge of the installation and all the maintenance. For example, in South Africa, Shell Renewables and Eskom have installed several thousand solar home systems on people’s homes. Customers pay a $30 installation fee and a monthly service fee of $8. Community owned and operated companies undertake marketing, installation and maintenance.

A key to making a project sustainable is education and training. Local technicians need to be trained in proper installation, maintenance and troubleshooting. Users of the systems need to be trained in how the systems work and how to maintain them. And a local infrastructure needs to be set up so system owners have a place to turn for spare parts and technical support.

Getting Involved
There are many opportunities for people who want to get involved in helping to bring electricity to rural areas of the world. Solar Energy International (SEI) offers a workshop on “Renewable Energy for the Developing World. SEI’s INVEST program (International Volunteers in Environmentally Sustainable Technologies) connects alumni of their renewable energy workshops with volunteer opportunities overseas.

As organizations around the world have shown, there is no need for people to live in the dark, to breathe kerosene fumes or to wait for the grid to be extended to their remote village. With the renewable resources of the sun, wind and water, people around the world can have access to—and can afford—clean, reliable electricity.

Laurie Stone writes and teaches about renewable energy technologies at Solar Energy International, P.O. Box 715, Carbondale, Colorado 81623, (970) 963-8855, FAX (970) 963-8866, e-mail: sei@solarenergy.org, web site: www.solarenergy.org.