How solar home systems temporally stimulate increasing power demands in rural households of Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Small solar home systems (SHS) have emerged as potential alternatives to grid electrifications, enabling households to make modest investments into their power systems, and to modify those systems according to their changing economic circumstances and power demands. Study shows that introduction to basic electricity access temporally stimulates increasing power demands in rural households, leading to eventual installations of larger systems that can power more electric appliances. Specifically, study shows that once households get access to basic electricity, they get to realise the socioeconomic benefits of it and start to desire more appliances, with TV being the most desired appliance, followed by stereo systems, small fridges, and small cooling fans. These desires are realised temporally with increasing household incomes, leading to increasing loads, and thus to the modifications of the originally installed small SHS, to meet those increasing load demands; the desire for luxurious appliances leads to activities that contribute to increased household incomes, and thus to the modifications of the initial SHS. Acquisitions of luxury appliances lead to improvements in quality of life and to improved esteem visibility and social status within the local communities. Potentially, increasing load demands within a given community could lead to extensions of the national utility grid to those areas, as total loads justify such investments. SHS therefore potentially act as grid electrification stimulators, leading to eventual grid electrification of a given community.

The Energy Lock-In Effect of Solar Home Systems: A Case Study in Rural Nigeria

“…Access to, and initial consumption of electricity has been shown to lead to increases in consumption over time, as users purchase more appliances (if affordable) [32]. This is in line with the study by Opiyo [33], which demonstrated that rural households in Kenya, upon realising the socioeconomic benefits of their basic electricity access from SHS, began to desire more high-powered appliances such as televisions and cooling fans. However, some researchers, such as Lee et al [34] and Stojanovski et al [20], have observed that while rural households purchased these appliances to benefit from the services they provide, they could not be accommodated by their SHSs due to their relatively small energy capacity, and hence these appliances were unusable.…”

“…SHSs are often seen as a means to get households onto the modern energy ladder [33,44,45]. However, the results show that for many it was a less desirable substitute for a grid-based service.…”

Solar Energy and Carbon Footprint Reduction in Nigeria: An in-Depth Analysis of Solar Power Initiatives, Outcomes, and Obstacles in Addressing Climate Change

“…Azuri Technologies, for instance, has introduced innovative pay-as-you-go solar home systems that cater to off-grid households. Through flexible payment plans, Azuri Technologies has made solar power accessible to many Nigerians who were previously reliant on costly and polluting kerosene lamps (Adwek et al, 2020;Bello and Ojoyi, 2017;Opiyo, 2019).…”

Techno-Economic Feasibility of Off-Grid Renewable Energy Electrification Schemes: A Case Study of an Informal Settlement in Namibia

“…However, most informal settlements in Namibia are without electricity and other essential services that could improve residents' living conditions and social status [12]. Studies have shown that access to electricity can influence the aspirations of people living in rural and informal settlements towards a productive life [13][14][15], better education [16,17], and increased health [18][19][20]. Thus, providing electricity to informal settlements is expected to reduce poverty and indirectly contribute to the country's socio-economic development.…”