The solar energy access in Kenya: a review focusing on Pay-As-You-Go solar home system

Adwek, George; Shen, Bo; Ndolo, Paul; Siagi, Zachary O.; Chepsaigutt, Chebet; Kemunto, Cicilia M.; Arowo, Moses; John, Sabu; Simiyu, Patrobers; Yabo, Abel C.

doi:10.1007/s10668-019-00372-x

Cited by 57 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…As the SHS market matures, companies are shifting from a sales approach towards more service-based models (Friebe, Flotow, & Täube, 2013b). This is due to the SHS affordability challenge being partly alleviated by the emergence of innovative pay-as-you-go (PAYG) payment schemes, which can ease credit constraints (Abdul-Salam & Phimister, 2019;Adwek et al, 2019;Lay, Ondraczek, & Stoever, 2013). PAYG allows customers to pay in instalments over time to either own the SHS (rent-to-own) or for continued use of the SHS (fee-for-service) (GOGLA, 2019).…”

Section: Shs Business Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SHS customers using PAYG are more likely to continue their payments in the long run because it offers them greater flexibility -only having to pay when they can afford to (Conway et al, 2019). It also provides companies with a stronger link to customers compared to a cash approach, enabling them to sell more appliances to their users in the future (Adwek et al, 2019).…”

Section: Shs Business Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The payment method also plays a large role in adoption, where the PAYG model is hailed as the most successful option for boosting SHS dissemination (Adwek et al, 2019). This is echoed by Barrie and Cruickshank (2017), who state that PAYG improves SHS adoption rates, despite raising the actual cost of diffusion by increasing the payment complexity compared to a retail approach.…”

Section: Diffusion Of Shs Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Solar Home Systems: A comprehensive literature review for Sub-Saharan Africa

Kizilcec

Parikh

2020

Energy for Sustainable Development

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Solar home systems (SHSs) have seen rapid growth and have proven to be a viable source of electricity for households due to their capability to reach remote users that do not have access to grid systems. Based on a comprehensive literature review of 139 papers focussing on SHSs in Sub-Saharan Africa, this paper highlights the key trends, research gaps and policy recommendations. The literature was categorised into four themes: institutional, technology, viability and user-centric. The review finds that the current primary themes of research are technology, user-centric and viability. This highlights the need for further research into the institutional barriers, need for a regulatory framework and stronger incentives for scale-up of SHSs. PAYG systems are gaining ground in off-grid solar markets providing flexibility on payments for consumers in resource challenged settings. The authors also identified paucity of research in countries with low electrification rates, highlighting new locations for SHS research.

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Section: Shs Business Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Shs Business Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Diffusion Of Shs Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Solar Home Systems: A comprehensive literature review for Sub-Saharan Africa

Kizilcec

Parikh

2020

Energy for Sustainable Development

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“…While the upfront costs of SHSs, at up to $400 for an 80 W system [21], can act as a barrier to entry for many of the poor rural households, the introduction of Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) service has helped improve its uptake. This is achieved by providing the SHS as a service, with the households making small, regular payments to access the service over an agreed time period, after which they own the SHS [22,23]. Companies such as M-KOPA and Bboxx in Kenya have successfully integrated mobile payment technologies with their SHS services, providing their customers with the convenience of making payments using their mobile phones, and increasing the flexibility of the amounts they pay and the payment intervals [24,25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2020

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Ongoing reductions in the costs of solar PV and battery technologies have contributed to an increased use of home energy systems in Sub-Saharan African regions without grid access. However, such systems can normally support only low-power end uses, and there has been little research regarding the impact on households unable to transition to higher-wattage energy services in the continued absence of the grid. This paper examines the challenges facing rural energy transitions and whether households feel they are energy ‘locked in’. A mixed-methods approach using questionnaire-based household energy surveys of rural solar home system (SHS) users was used to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Thematic analysis and a mixture of descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were applied. The results showed that a significant number of households possessed appliances that could not be powered by their SHS and were willing to spend large sums to connect were a higher-capacity option available. This implied that a significant number of the households were locked into a low-energy future. Swarm electrification technology and energy efficient, DC-powered plug-and-play appliances were suggested as means to move the households to higher tiers of electricity access.

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“…High capital cost, coupled with minimal consumption, means most business models are not able to get commensurate returns without using a tariff that would appear exorbitant for the rural customers. Therefore, the creation of income-generating activities for end users is critical for the success of minigrid [63]. Minigrid construction in Rwanda requires support ranging between 40.0% and 70.0% of capital funding [60,64,65], with most operating and upcoming projects either focusing on individual sites or testing business models to be up-scaled later.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar PV Minigrid Technology: Peak Shaving Analysis in the East African Community Countries

Ihirwe

Sun

et al. 2021

International Journal of Photoenergy

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Solar PV research in East Africa has concentrated on solar home systems (SHS) in each country. However, several other fundamental advances in the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry have emerged, and the developments have seen the sector experienced significant growth and diversification of models, regulation, and financing. This paper begins with an extensive narrative on the solar PV outlook of each of the six countries studied. A solar PV minigrid was also simulated using HOMER software with a critical load of 2800.0 kWh/day in order to analyze the peak shaving capability and assess the affordability of the solar PV microgrid having commercial and industrial loads. The regional overview of the efforts was identified, followed by a description of the models, payment methods, and barriers encountered collectively. The lessons from this research suggest that there is a vast potential for solar PV micro and minigrid deployment in the region with a population of over 100 million people lacking access to electricity by the end of 2019. It shows that solar PV minigrid deployment in East Africa is still at a nascent phase. Also, minigrid developers face several challenges operating in rural areas. While solar PV minigrids remain fairly nascent in the East Africa region, the technology is gaining traction, a development that indicates budding confidence in the solar PV minigrid technology. This study identifies that (1) with large critical loads (industrial and commercial), solar PV minigrid can still contribute to affordable electricity through peak shaving, except Tanzania; (2) solar PV minigrid projects are largely dependent on donor financing, require vast financial diversity to get off the ground, and offer consistent service; (3) Governments support in the form of National electrification strategies, policies, and regulation are key ingredients for realizing the electrification of rural populations through minigrids; (4) hybrid minigrids and power demand creation have emerged as an approach that ensures sustainability or profitability for the operating solar minigrid firms. Overall, government policy and regulation, funding, and financial sustainability remain the major hurdles to minigrid uptake in the region.

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The solar energy access in Kenya: a review focusing on Pay-As-You-Go solar home system

Cited by 57 publications

References 55 publications

Solar Home Systems: A comprehensive literature review for Sub-Saharan Africa

Solar Home Systems: A comprehensive literature review for Sub-Saharan Africa

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

Solar PV Minigrid Technology: Peak Shaving Analysis in the East African Community Countries

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