THE NEXT WIRELESS REVOLUTION, IN ELECTRICITY
More wiring and pipes is not a viable solution. There is no political will for the expensive task of electrifying Africa. The grid, in fact, is growing more slowly than the population.
A clue to one answer comes from a more familiar product: the mobile phone. About half of Africans own one, and 75 or 80 percent have access to one. Africans have leapfrogged over the landline. In the process, they have created an information revolution whose effects on agriculture, commerce, health and education we cannot yet imagine.
But if off-grid communication is bringing change, even more will come from off-grid power — wind, small hydro, biomass, but mostly solar. Power drives almost everything else — cooking without gathering wood and inhaling smoke, clean water, radios, fans, eventually TVs. Also, this second revolution is needed to make the first revolution happen. How do people without electricity charge their mobile phones? Solar lights increasingly come with that capacity.
Power brings more than consumption. It brings safety: people can walk at night, women no longer have to range so far to gather wood for cooking. It brings education: children can study after dark. It brings prosperity: stores can stay open longer. Producers can get the tools they need to produce more — a milk-chiller for dairy farmers, pumps to irrigate crops.
One huge benefit of off-grid power is that it aligns what’s good for the poor with what’s good for the planet. Pro-poor hasn’t always meant pro-environment — as poor countries develop, they consume more fossil fuels. But with off-grid it’s different. “Providing basic services to off-grid households …can only be done in an environmentally responsible way,” said Gupta.
“Because the grid hasn’t arrived, the dominant fossil fuel is really kerosene, for cooking and lighting,” said Justin Guay, associate director of the international climate program at the Sierra Club. “Replacing that kerosene with solar lanterns, home systems and cooking stoves can have a tremendous impact on the environment, in addition to increasing livelihoods and health.”
In 2009 there were some 300,000 solar lamps in use in Africa. By the end of 2012, there were 4 million, and sales are doubling each year. Gaurav points out that solar lighting is not only a service. It can also come in the form of a product a family can buy at a local store for $10. This shift is useful, as products are rapidly improving; battery hours and brightness are increasing even as prices drop.
One light is often not enough, so there are other models. A family can buy a more ambitious solar lighting system that offers several lights and phone charging.
There are also new products for village entrepreneurs. A set of solar panels and rechargeable lights, for example, creates a business that delivers lanterns to customers every morning and evening, picking up the spent lanterns at the same time.
Or a village entrepreneur can buy a power plant in a box: solar panels and wiring for 20 or so households. That person is now the village power company, but his wiring need only be a few hundred yards of cable, rather than a few hundred miles.
