Solar Power Starts Muscling Out Kerosene (Cameroon)

[jpak]

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=36824

YAOUNDE, Mar 6 (IPS) - For Merline Momo Azeufac, a teacher at Balefock village in western Cameroon, the days of fearing nightfall while correcting pupils' work are over. She's no longer hostage to the poor light provided by kerosene lamps.

"I always had sore eyes, and also a headache because of the smoke," Azeufac told IPS. "Imagine that I used to correct about a hundred exercise books in bad lighting conditions…But this hasn't been a problem since we had solar power."

At the end of 2006, Balefock received four solar panels to produce power, under a grant from the Rural Entrepreneurship Foundation (REF). This non-governmental organisation (NGO), based in the Cameroonian capital of Yaoundé, was responding to a request from the Balefock Public School Parents' Association.

The advent of solar power made the village part of a trend towards alternative energy use in Cameroon that has gained momentum amidst difficulties with giving all homes access to the national electricity grid.

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[GliderGuider]

1. The key here is LED lighting

We heard the founder of Light up the World speak in Toronto a couple of summers ago. He uses LED lights, that have very low power requirements and very long lifespans, to replace kerosene lamps in remote rural areas. He had his epiphany in Tibet when he looked into a school just after sunset and saw children trying to read by the light of smoky, dangerous kerosene lamps. The LED systems he works with cost about the same as one year's supply of kerosene, but last for decades and put out much more light. His projects are powered by very small solar, wind or micro-hydro generators, and can be funded through micro-credit.

[jwirr]

2. I have always wondered why it has taken so long for solar power

to be the top source of energy in Africa? Solar powered ideas have been around a long time and it seems to me that there is no better place to use them than Africa.

[phantom power]

3. One reason is because PV is expensive, and Africa is poor.

I think that GG makes a good observation. The availability of LED lighting has effectively reduced the cost of solar lighting, because it allows you to get useful light with a lot fewer PV panels, and so the overall system becomes more affordable.

[jpak]

5. NGOs have been distributing PV systems in developing countries for years

One NGO - Grupo Fenix - purchases factory-second PV cells and trains people to assemble and sell PV modules locally...

http://www.grupofenix.org/projects.html

And, as far as money is concerned, last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner has a solution: microloans.

There is a lot going on with solar in the developing world - it just doesn't get a whole lot of media attention.

[phantom power]

8. Microloans seem to be working out nicely for developing countries.

[hunter]

7. Previous to white LEDs, systems were fragile too.

Incandescent bulbs were very inefficient and breakable, while fluorescents were more efficient, but also more breakable.

In places where money is very hard to come by, broken light bulbs are a big deal.

[GliderGuider]

4. Cost/benefit ratio

It's a very expensive technology for the amount energy it provides, so you have to have very efficient ways of turning the trickle of electricity into something useful. LED lights are custom-made for this sort of application, but until recently they were too expensive as well. Also, until recently it wasn't very user-friendly. You needed a certain amount of technical skill to deal with a solar installation, and the level of required knowledge was pretty low among African villagers. Now, with solar systems being produced in more turnkey packages this isn't so much of an issue. For large-scale power solar is still extremely expensive compared to fossil fuels, so that limits it to smaller gridless applications, where it can be quite effective.

[jwirr]

6. Okay, I guess I was thinking along the lines of low-tech uses.