Solar power lights up lives

At twilight in an isloated community near Mount Ayliff in South Africa’s Eastern Province, Sipho, an eight year-old school boy, switched on a light and continued with his homework.
Although the house he lives in is 20 km from the nearest electricity grid, power and light is being brought to homes like Sipho’s by an ambitious public/private partnership that aims to solar-electrify 50,000 households in this impoverished province.

The biggest scheme of its kind in the world, the hardware consists of a 50 watt solar panel and a 12 volt battery which stores the energy generated. The power it provides enables the user to run four lights, a television set and portable radio. The unit can generate enough power on most days to operate the lights for four hours, a portable black and white television for the same period and a radio for 10 hours.

“There’s nothing new in the technolgy, but what we’re doing is unique, we’re offering a complete solar utility service to isloated and scattered communites,” Elize Gothard of Shell Solar Southern Africa told IRIN. Shell collaborated with national utility company Eskom to launch the project two years ago. Solar energy has been used by development experts to try and provide electricity to the rural poor, but more often than not these projects failed because the equipment was left in a community with no one to maintain it.

The goal is to provide solar energy as a service rather than selling the hardware, according to Gothard. “After paying a small installation fee, our customers buy a token for R52 (US $6) a month,” said Gothard. “Which is the same price they spend on parrafin, candles and batteries.” For the fee, Eskom-Shell provides the maintenance and installation needed for the solar energy system and will also train householders on the basics of how to use it.

Victoria Ntombekhaya runs a grocery shop from a converted bus just outside Mount Ayliff. Her lighting and a pumping hi-fi system have proved a big attraction to shoppers and her business has improved since she signed-up to the scheme a year ago. “Hey, I feel great, part of today’s world,” she shouted above the music. “You should see this place at the weekend.”

Other local entrepreneurs have been quick to see the business potential of the pioneering solar project. An inverter changes the 12 volt battery to 220 volt AC electricity, which allows the user to charge a cellular phone or use hair clippers, sewing machines and computers.

The domestic electrification programme is progressing rapidly. Already, 6,000 homes have been electrified, with a further 19,000 in the pipeline. The infrastructure has been established, including a warehouse and head office located in Port Shepstone. General Manager of Eskom-Shell Solar Home Systems, Clive Horlock, told IRIN that the beauty of the project was that it did not rely on development aid and that it was commercially viable. “We hope to hit break-even at 25,000 subscribers, after that we envisage a profit,” he said.

A recent survey of rural communities in South Africa concluded that a government subsidy would allow thousands more homes to take advantage of solar power. “Grid electricity is subsidised, so why should potential solar power users be discriminated against?” Gothard said. The project is hopeful that a povery subsidy would boost demand substantially. “Most people who see what the system can do want it installed, but many simply cannot afford the monthly fee,” Horlock said.

On a visit to some of the outlying areas that the project serves, Horlock said that costs are kept to a minimum, but servicing scattered communities is expensive. “Getting a new battery or panel down there is a nightmare,” Horlock added, pointing to a collection of huts with solar panels pointing skywards, kilometres away in a distant river valley.

The ability of such schemes to finance themselves concerns some analysts. “The people who need solar power are difficult to get to and widely dispersed, you need more people to get to these spots, to service the installation and collect fees, this decreases the financial viability,” Madeleine Costanza of the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC) told IRIN. But she added that private/public partnerships could help to address the issue of viability.

Apart from bringing power and light to out of the way villages, the project has other important spin-offs. It’s creating sustainable employment in very poor parts of the province. Apart from the solar panel, the rest of the system is locally made. Local people have been trained to install and maintain the equipment. These staff are also responsible for educating users. “It’s crucial ... we try and overcome their fear of the technology,” one installer told IRIN. “I’ve seen people shaking with fear when they put their first token in the machine.”

Solar power also frees people from the health and safety risks associated with burning candles and paraffin, often in enclosed, poorly ventilated rural homes. “My neighbour’s child is scarred, badly, a candle fell on her at night,” said Anne Ntombelo as she poured a soft drink for a customer from a container that doubles as a solar-powered bar on the dusty road to Bizana.

Sunshine is also allowing rural children like Sipho more than just electric light to do his homework by. Solar panels are providing power for computers and internet connections in hundreds of schools far from the grid.

At Myeka Secondary School at Inanda in neighbouring KwaZulu Natal, three huge panels provide enough electricity to run 10 computers. They also power a mobile phone line that allows access to the internet. “It’s revolutionised our school without a doubt,” principal Melusi Zwane told IRIN.

Shell Renewables has also established businesses to supply renewable energy to rural markets in India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Although Shell has invested heavily in the Eastern Cape project, its for sound commercial reasons. With a potential world market of up to two billion people, if the Eskom-Shell scheme can work here, the model can be replicated almost anywhere. The scheme being pioneered in South Africa shows that with government support, solar power can bring important developmental benefits to a world where electricity is still a distant dream.