Ioan Jivan

Open in app Reaching for the Sun: Solar Power in Developing Countries Ioan Jivan 5 min read · 3 days ago Listen Share More Ever wondered how people living in developing countries can afford a solar system when they sometimes cannot pay for education or healthcare? Experts are advising investments in solar energy all the time, and yes, the countries with money on an international level can make a sacrifice, but what about the underdogs? Theoretically going solar is pretty simple, as long as you have the initial investments to cover the cost of a functioning solar rooftop. An expert installs them for you and you are now using clean energy. Well, it might not be as simple. There’s a list of problems that come depending on your location, which can make you think more than twice about putting in the effort. What happens if the sun does not shine for a few days? What happens to the excess electricity, can you sell it? If the government cares about this, you could get some green bonds from it, but it probably doesn’t. Most of these can be solved by adding a few extra steps like batteries to complete the system, but the cost will rise. The difference is not that much (for Elon Musk), a meager $20-$35k for a big home, but if you are a village chief in a remote location the complexity rises. Combined with the extra cost of accessing technology and labor from mostly far away, it feels cheaper to hire a mechanical wheel spinner. It’s even harder for the average person living in the rural areas of India or Nigeria, not to mention the chances of someone from Sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asian jungle to get a functioning system working. An average family in rural India makes 110 dollars a month, so even loans are out of the question. Makes you wonder (or maybe it’s just me) why they even bother with such sustainable and expensive technology. And the answer is simple: they don’t have a choice. About a billion (!) people live without being connected to the electricity grid. Their governments can’t afford to connect them, so it’s up to them to power households, and solar is one of the few choices out there. So how do they do it? They band together. While the average family can’t afford such systems, the higher the initial resources, the more efficient the investment is and the more homes you can power. This means that a person with access to enough resources and willingness to invest can acquire enough photovoltaics to power an entire community. If the government can’t do it, they need someone else with a lot of power, so an entrepreneur. This person can connect neighboring households and distribute clean electricity at a price, lifting the whole area up and improving the lives of the locals. This is called a microgrid and, exactly what it sounds like, is just like a national energy network, but on a smaller scale. In exchange for powering the village, the mini-grid owner can charge for electricity, hopefully not at a premium (like in more developed countries), jobs are created and, more importantly, the know-how is distributed to the region and beyond. Besides the obvious impact on society, it can actually be quite profitable, and after adding the help of governmental incentives and foreign investment, the business model sounds even more enticing. But solar electricity has to face some high resistance, if you know what I mean. Because it can take a long time for the investment to pay off, stakeholders need to be sure that the flow of income will remain steady and that people will continue paying for electricity. It’s much riskier to invest in rural areas because you can’t be sure that people will have the same amount of money in a few years. They could lose their jobs due to bad economic policy or maybe all the young people will decide to move to cities. There are also other problems like the availability of skilled labor and increased corruption. Some shady politicians may require a few ‘incentives’ to keep the business going. A common problem in India, for example, is that people start stealing energy due to a lack of law enforcement. All these possibilities make microgrids in developing countries a very risky investment and this is why this has not been applied in all cases. The Sun shines on country roads What is interesting though is that this could be a great opportunity to make improvements in renewable technology. Historically, places of scarcity have been hubs for innovation and there is no reason to believe that microgrids will not make solar power at least more sustainable, if not more refined. The adoption of recycling in WW2 and the use of electric vehicles for civil duties are just two examples of sustainability-oriented innovations that have come out of troubling regions. There is something about doing more with less that seems to have a positive impact on society. Not to mention the promise of competition that developing countries bring, with fewer big players to dominate markets and more talent to choose from. There is an opportunity to try out new things and take into consideration the actual needs of the planet. But there is still a long way to go. It might look like progress on renewables is constantly made, but this only applies to technological advancements. When it comes to politics, things tend to go up and down like the popularity of hipster outfits, driven more by short-term agendas than the goal of long-term progress. Oftentimes, policymakers can seem like a bunch of kids fighting for what they’ll have for lunch. But no kid can say no to pizza, and no politician can say no to sustainable profit. Seen from space, a big part of Earth at night is in darkness, but once we perfect microgrids we can power even the most remote parts of our beloved planet. We could be sending emojis to aliens. Sustainability Solar Energy Developing Countries Rural Economic Development Edit profile Written by Ioan Jivan 0 Followers More from Ioan Jivan