In a two-part series, we explore how China is, directly and indirectly, bolstering power supply in Africa, enabling countries to move towards achieving some Sustainable Development Goals. We start with how some homes that would have been under darkness for ages are seeing light.
LIFE ON THE MOVE—Louis’ wife cutting a boy’s hair
By Charles Mpaka:
In a hard-to-reach Nayupe Village in Traditional Authority Kapeni in the outskirts of Blantyre, Ephraim Louis cannot imagine where his redemption would have come from without the solar panel on the roof of his house.
“I am not a captive of darkness anymore,” says Louis, 42. “It’s more than 10 years since I installed this system and we still don’t have the main grid anywhere near us. No one here thinks it will ever come.”
But there’s something more significant about this investment.
“When I kicked darkness out of my home, I realised it wasn’t just throwing out the darkness of the night but of poverty too. The small businesses I set up because of this power have greatly improved my family’s welfare,” he says.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, off-grid solar (OGS) home systems are bringing light – and social and economic progress – to households that main grids would have left in despair potentially for ages.
Disconnected from grids
Across the continent, connection to electric grids remains unimpressive, according to a 2022 Afrobarometer survey of 34 African countries, 32 of them in Sub-Saharan Africa. The survey finds that only 45 percent of rural residents have access to electric grid. In contrast, in urban areas, 94 percent have the access.
Further, less than six in 10 households are actually connected to a grid but these connections favour the economically advantaged homes.
For those connected, reliability is an issue – only around 43 percent said the electricity works most of or all the time.
“A majority of Africans still lack reliable electricity from the national grid, whether because the grid doesn’t reach them, [or] they can’t afford to connect to it, or service from the grid is unreliable,” concludes Afrobarometer, a pan-African research organization.
OGS products taking control
During the survey, almost quarter of the people said they use other sources, with solar products the most popular alternative, mostly by rural populations to “compensate for non-existent or poor-quality service from the national grid.”
In the solar products market, Sub-Saharan Africa is “the rising star”, accounting for 70 percent of sales of pico-solar products globally.
Driving this growth, according to Global Off- Grid Lighting Association (Gogla), a body for the off-grid solar energy industry, are technical advances that have reduced the cost of solar panels —thereby increasing their affordability — and their size — making them easier to transport.
Gogla’s Se
