TY - JOUR
T1 - Rural energy access through solar home systems
T2 - use patterns and opportunities for improvement
AU - Stojanovski, Ognen
AU - Thurber, Mark
AU - Wolak, Frank
N1 - Funding Information:
Michael Miller and Brian Kooiman provided exceptional research assistance during the more than 3?years that it took to design and implement this project, as well as to clean and analyze the data. We are also grateful for the hard work and resourcefulness of our on-the-ground data collection teams, ably led by Juliet Kyayesimira and Joseph Arineitwe (CIRCODU ? Uganda), and Faith Manywali (Ipsos ? Kenya). This primary research was generously funded by grants from the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED), the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and the Precourt Institute for Energy (PIE).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 International Energy Initiative
PY - 2017/4
Y1 - 2017/4
N2 - Solar photovoltaic (PV) products are touted as a leading solution to long-term electrification and development problems in rural parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet there is little available data on the interactions between solar products and other household energy sources (which solar PVs are often assumed to simply displace) or the extent to which actual use patterns match up with the uses presumed by manufacturers and development agencies. This paper probes those questions through a survey that tracked approximately 500 early adopters of solar home systems in two off-grid markets in Africa. We find that these products were associated with large reductions in the use of kerosene and the charging of mobile phones outside the home. To a lesser extent, the use of small disposable batteries also decreased. However, solar home systems were, for the most part, not used to power radios, TVs, or flashlights. We also did not observe adopter households using these solar products to support income-generating activities.
AB - Solar photovoltaic (PV) products are touted as a leading solution to long-term electrification and development problems in rural parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet there is little available data on the interactions between solar products and other household energy sources (which solar PVs are often assumed to simply displace) or the extent to which actual use patterns match up with the uses presumed by manufacturers and development agencies. This paper probes those questions through a survey that tracked approximately 500 early adopters of solar home systems in two off-grid markets in Africa. We find that these products were associated with large reductions in the use of kerosene and the charging of mobile phones outside the home. To a lesser extent, the use of small disposable batteries also decreased. However, solar home systems were, for the most part, not used to power radios, TVs, or flashlights. We also did not observe adopter households using these solar products to support income-generating activities.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85011592511&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.esd.2016.11.003
DO - 10.1016/j.esd.2016.11.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85011592511
SN - 0973-0826
VL - 37
SP - 33
EP - 50
JO - Energy for Sustainable Development
JF - Energy for Sustainable Development
ER -
