Why is this project important?

Energy poverty in Africa is arresting development.

Meeting Africa’s energy needs is complicated by the lack of resources to pay for energy supplies, the dispersed nature of African communities, and the general inadequacy of infrastructure. This to a large extent precludes rural and peri-urban communities from access to the national electricity grid. Energy services are therefore best provided by renewable energy systems, which by nature provide distributed (stand-alone) power.

Because of the lack of financial resources within African rural communities, the provision of these energy services is reliant on donor funding and government subsidies. It would appear from anecdotal evidence that many past renewable energy projects have not proved sustainable. There appears to be a number of reasons for the failure of projects. Projects were often driven by the need to allocate funds to a specific project and not necessarily because of the integral sustainability of that project. Once the project is completed the project developer (generally an NGO) turns their attention to another project to access donor funds. There is therefore little incentive to ensure that the project is sustainable. In fact, the very opposite may be the reality. The effectiveness of the donor dollar is therefore substantially reduced and by raising the expectations of local communities, the motivation for the community to establish even the basic provision of services is postponed. Self-help is therefore undermined.