INTASAVE Africa is powering on with a project to deliver solar energy to rural households in Kenya, reporting back to two communities on how small-scale, communal systems would be a good fit for their needs.
Over six days in early July, a team from the Solar Nano Grid (SONG) Project updated residents in the Echareria and Lemolo B communities on the benefits of about 50 households linking up and plugging in to a local solar-energy cluster, or “solar-hub”. The initial plans were to have a nano-grid – which refers to households connected to a centralised solar-hub. This however changed after the confirmed dispersed settlement over the research phase, resulting in the adoption of the solar hub model where the community would have their batteries charged and taken home.
Although both communities are not beyond the reach of the main electricity network, prohibitive costs make it challenging for many of them to be connected to the national grid. The feedback was based on a series of household surveys carried out in November, 2014 on the electricity needs of families and the potential of nano-grids to meet them.
Most homes now are lit either by kerosene or firewood and a switch to solar could mean better health and education for most families through less air pollution and improved lighting. It is unlikely that individual solar home systems would be affordable or generate economic benefits for the village as a whole.
The team found that the households would be better off working in clusters of 50 or so households and building their own power system that could also be connected to an agricultural or industrial application like an irrigation network.
“These systems could supply enough electricity for each household’s needs as well as generate an income for the community, reducing the cost of energy for each family,” Dr. Ed Brown, Loughborough University
As part of the feedback, coordinators signed up families keen to be connected to a nano-grid and established a consultation group in each village – an interim body linking the communities and the SONG Project team.
“This project empowers the community energy-wise by enhancing their control over the resource and creates room for further developments within our community,” Pastor Edward Waithaka (one of the village elders in Echareria).
The group will air community concerns, ideas and views on the planned project to the SONG team and pave the way for a Village Energy Committee (VEC) to oversee and manage the grid once it is up and running.
“Most households are dissatisfied with their existing energy sources,” Senior Project Officer, INTASAVE Africa James Mwangi said. “Nano-grids are a viable financial option for households in these areas, particularly as climate change increasingly rules out the use of fossil fuels.”
The next steps will involve conducting elections for the VECs in both communities and installation of the solar nano grids.
The SONG Project is funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the UK Department for International Development and the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change. It is being conducted by researchers from Loughborough University (UK), INTASAVE (Kenya) and the International University (Bangladesh), together with colleagues from the University of Nottingham (UK) and Oxford University (UK).
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