Practical approach for sustainable solar eletrification of remote rural communities in eastern Africa : the case of Tanzania

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the most important resources in the world, and advancements in solar energy technologies are making it more and more cost effective. Although the use of solar powered systems is rapidly increasing in many regions, the major barriers for wide spreads of such systems in remote rural areas of developing countries include lack of investment capital, cultural and technical barriers. This study was commissioned to assess the practicality of disseminating solar home lighting systems to remote rural villages in southern Tanzania, to identify specific barriers that may hinder adopting of such systems by wider communities in rural areas and recommend practical counteractive measures. The analysis used facts collected from key informants, focus group discussions and primary household-level data from 200 households in remote rural villages of Lindi and Mtwara regions. The study explored technical requirements, economic viability, and the policy and planning issues which may contribute to success or failure of an intervention. It was observed that the majority of respondents (80%) were enthusiastic towards acquiring solar kits for lighting their homes, especially those who happen to know these systems and were willing to pay between TAS 5000.00 ($3.3) and 10,000.00 ($ 6.6) as initial deposit to acquire a solar system,. In addition they were willing to pay TAS 5000 ($ 3.3) every month until the cost of the system is recovered. The payment is slightly lower than the cost they incur to buy kerosene and torch batteries for lighting. Despite, the willingness to acquire the lighting systems, it was observed that, success of such an intervention to large extent rely on availability of secure after sale services. The study could not identify any intentional government or other stakeholders’ strategies or policy measure to ensure sustainability of such interventions. Investigation on similar projects implemented in other parts of the country revealed that, conventional methods of providing aftersales services have had little success especially when applied to remote rural areas. Therefore the study recommends training of local people especially women who are deep rooted in the village and are unlikely to migrate from their villages to urban areas. The training should cover installation, repair, maintenance and spare parts procurement. Since most of rural dwellers in Tanzania are semi-illiterate, special approach for selection of trainees and ‘hands on’ training should be adopted to ensure comprehension of the course content. Barefoot approach which has been used successfully to train such technicians and has proved to be a workable solution for provision of training on aftersales services in Northern part of the country is recommended for other rural communities.