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Catch the sun
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ANALYSIS OFF-GRID ENERGY
Catch the sun Solar power is giving millions of people access to electricity. Could they bypass the grid altogether, asks Michael Le Page MORE than 100 million people around the world now have access to electricity for the first time thanks to simple solar power systems that typically provide LED lights and a phone charger. More powerful versions include radios and even televisions. The LEDs provide a clean and cheap alternative to the kerosene lamps normally used by those with no electricity. “People spend 50 cents a day on kerosene,” says Nick Hughes, co-founder of M-KOPA Solar of Kenya, which 22 | NewScientist | 23/30 December 2017
has sold 550,000 home solar the world. There is, in short, no power systems in East Africa. doubt that the off-grid renewable Some families spend a tenth of energy revolution has begun. their income on fuel for lighting. But where is it going to end up? “It’s a crazy price for a poor fuel,” In South-East Asia and subsays Hughes. Saharan Africa, about 1.3 billion His firm has just raised the people still lack electricity. Some money it needs to finance a think off-grid energy systems will million more systems, and expand to fill this gap. If so, that Hughes thinks they could could let the world’s poorest eventually sell up to 11 million in East Africa alone. And M-KOPA is “In South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, about just one of many companies now 1.3 billion people still selling solar power systems to people who lack electricity around don’t have electricity”
people leapfrog conventional electricity grids powered by fossil fuels entirely and go directly to 100 per cent renewable systems. Critics argue that low-power solar is no substitute for getting poor people onto more plentiful and cheaper grid electricity. However, for the hundreds of millions of those with no immediate prospect of getting such electricity, off-grid is better than nothing. And as the technology improves and prices fall, the systems will become
For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
Electrification brings educational benefits and raises income
ever more powerful. Most of those who lack electricity live in rural regions far from the grid. Providing them with access to electricity isn’t just a matter of basic human rights and fairness. It has also been shown to have wide socio-economic benefits, from improving educational attainment to boosting incomes. So there is wide agreement about its importance. But how do you do it? Until recently, the main option besides grid connection was to set up microgrids covering multiple homes powered by diesel generators, which are expensive and highly polluting.
Light work Now the falling prices of solar panels and batteries, along with more energy-efficient appliances such as LED bulbs and televisions, have created another option. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated earlier this year that solar home systems will provide basic electricity to another 70 million people over the next five years. “Off-grid energy has incredibly high social consequences,” said Paolo Frankl, head of the IEA’s renewable division, at the report’s launch. Indeed, some proponents of off-grid solar argue that it can provide all the wider benefits of electricity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That seems like a massive win-win situation: tackling poverty and climate change at the same time. But it’s not that simple. “Anyone who tells you that this is about tackling climate change is misleading you,” says Varun Sivaram of the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, and author of a forthcoming book on solar power called Taming the Sun. For starters, the poorest people
use hardly any energy compared with the richest, whether they have electricity or not. “Rising levels of access to modern energy have a negligible impact on emissions,” says a 2014 IEA report. What’s more, cheap solar power systems have their limitations. When Greenpeace set up a low-power solar microgrid in an Indian village in 2014, the villagers were so disappointed they protested and demanded “real” electricity. They may have been right to do so, as several studies have found that basic home solar doesn’t appear to provide the broader socio-economic benefits of grid access. A two-year randomised trial in India by Michaël Aklin at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his colleagues found no evidence that after its introduction people saved more, started more businesses or spent more time working or studying. “It’s not a silver bullet,” he says. The reason is probably that these systems provide so little electricity. Beefier systems are available but cost much more. Home solar systems do at least reduce kerosene use, which is a big source of indoor air pollution. “That’s great news,” says Aklin. “Kerosene is nasty for health.”
When it comes to providing Few people in poor regions access to electricity, most gains can afford to buy a solar power will come from extending system outright. Instead, using a conventional grids, says Sivaram. payment system based on mobile And indeed many countries are phone credit, they pay M-KOPA trying to do exactly that. Both a deposit followed by small daily India, which has 260 million payments. After a year, they own people without electricity, and the system outright. If they miss Nigeria, which has 80 million, a payment, the system stops have ambitious plans to extend working until they resume. grid access. “We can turn them on and off But electrification will take remotely,” says Hughes. time. A 2015 report forecast So M-KOPA is effectively that less than 80 per cent of lending money to people who people in sub-Saharan Africa would never normally be able to will have access to electricity “Less than 80 per cent by 2040, for instance. of sub-Saharan Africans So off-grid solar does have a valuable role to play, says Sivaram. will have access to electricity by 2040” In the areas where grid access will be a long time coming or will never be practical, countries get a loan. “We have a really good should be encouraging private repayment rate, in excess of companies such as M-KOPA. 90 per cent,” says Hughes. That means getting rid of import This approach could allow tariffs that make solar expensive people to buy bigger appliances in some African countries, as well such as refrigerators, along with as the kerosene subsidy in India, farming equipment and maybe which makes it difficult for solar even electric cars (see “Climateto compete. friendly cooking”, below left). Providing electricity alone, “Our technology works with of course, isn’t enough. It’s no anything that turns on and off,” use having a socket if you have says Hughes. nothing to plug into it. This is Given this, full grid access won’t where the innovative business necessarily put companies like models M-KOPA is pioneering M-KOPA out of business, then. But could make a big difference. more surprisingly, they may be able to keep selling solar systems even to people with grid access. CLIMATE-FRIENDLY COOKING The grids in many countries are Around 3 billion people – including less polluting. Moving to solar would extremely unreliable, so solarmany with electricity – still cook be even better, says Mahesh Bhave, powered microgrids are likely to using solid fuels such as wood, whose firm Bhave Power Systems be used in conjunction with the dung and charcoal. This produces plans to sell induction cookers conventional grid. “The quality of plenty of indoor pollution and a third powered by solar-charged batteries. the grid is very poor. There are lots of the outdoor pollution plaguing “Nobody is thinking about [solar] of blackouts,” says Aklin. “I see South Asia. cooking,” he says. potential for a combined system.” You might think that wood and Running induction cookers requires These backup microgrids could dung are forms of renewable energy 1500 to 2000-watt systems, which is remain separate from the grid, and thus climate friendly, but cooking much more than most home solar can says Sivaram, or could be designed with them produces black carbon and currently provide, but is fast becoming to feed power into it. In other methane, both of which make the achievable as the prices of solar words, off-grid renewables could planet hotter. Phasing out traditional panels and batteries fall. end up merging with the grid, stoves would prevent tens of millions Bhave is also targeting homes making it more resilient. of premature deaths and reduce connected to the grid. He thinks he “It’s important to neither global warming by 0.1°C by 2100, can sell solar microgrids that run see off-grid as a magical perfect a study estimated earlier this year. induction cookers to relatively solution or useless,” says India is encouraging people to wealthy apartment blocks to act as Aklin. “The truth is somewhere switch to gas cookers, which are far a backup to unreliable mains power. in-between.” ■ 23/30 December 2017 | NewScientist | 23
ANALYSIS OFF-GRID ENERGY
Catch the sun Solar power is giving millions of people access to electricity. Could they bypass the grid altogether, asks Michael Le Page MORE than 100 million people around the world now have access to electricity for the first time thanks to simple solar power systems that typically provide LED lights and a phone charger. More powerful versions include radios and even televisions. The LEDs provide a clean and cheap alternative to the kerosene lamps normally used by those with no electricity. “People spend 50 cents a day on kerosene,” says Nick Hughes, co-founder of M-KOPA Solar of Kenya, which 22 | NewScientist | 23/30 December 2017
has sold 550,000 home solar the world. There is, in short, no power systems in East Africa. doubt that the off-grid renewable Some families spend a tenth of energy revolution has begun. their income on fuel for lighting. But where is it going to end up? “It’s a crazy price for a poor fuel,” In South-East Asia and subsays Hughes. Saharan Africa, about 1.3 billion His firm has just raised the people still lack electricity. Some money it needs to finance a think off-grid energy systems will million more systems, and expand to fill this gap. If so, that Hughes thinks they could could let the world’s poorest eventually sell up to 11 million in East Africa alone. And M-KOPA is “In South-East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, about just one of many companies now 1.3 billion people still selling solar power systems to people who lack electricity around don’t have electricity”
people leapfrog conventional electricity grids powered by fossil fuels entirely and go directly to 100 per cent renewable systems. Critics argue that low-power solar is no substitute for getting poor people onto more plentiful and cheaper grid electricity. However, for the hundreds of millions of those with no immediate prospect of getting such electricity, off-grid is better than nothing. And as the technology improves and prices fall, the systems will become
For daily news stories, visit newscientist.com/news
Electrification brings educational benefits and raises income
ever more powerful. Most of those who lack electricity live in rural regions far from the grid. Providing them with access to electricity isn’t just a matter of basic human rights and fairness. It has also been shown to have wide socio-economic benefits, from improving educational attainment to boosting incomes. So there is wide agreement about its importance. But how do you do it? Until recently, the main option besides grid connection was to set up microgrids covering multiple homes powered by diesel generators, which are expensive and highly polluting.
Light work Now the falling prices of solar panels and batteries, along with more energy-efficient appliances such as LED bulbs and televisions, have created another option. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated earlier this year that solar home systems will provide basic electricity to another 70 million people over the next five years. “Off-grid energy has incredibly high social consequences,” said Paolo Frankl, head of the IEA’s renewable division, at the report’s launch. Indeed, some proponents of off-grid solar argue that it can provide all the wider benefits of electricity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That seems like a massive win-win situation: tackling poverty and climate change at the same time. But it’s not that simple. “Anyone who tells you that this is about tackling climate change is misleading you,” says Varun Sivaram of the Council on Foreign Relations, a US think tank, and author of a forthcoming book on solar power called Taming the Sun. For starters, the poorest people
use hardly any energy compared with the richest, whether they have electricity or not. “Rising levels of access to modern energy have a negligible impact on emissions,” says a 2014 IEA report. What’s more, cheap solar power systems have their limitations. When Greenpeace set up a low-power solar microgrid in an Indian village in 2014, the villagers were so disappointed they protested and demanded “real” electricity. They may have been right to do so, as several studies have found that basic home solar doesn’t appear to provide the broader socio-economic benefits of grid access. A two-year randomised trial in India by Michaël Aklin at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his colleagues found no evidence that after its introduction people saved more, started more businesses or spent more time working or studying. “It’s not a silver bullet,” he says. The reason is probably that these systems provide so little electricity. Beefier systems are available but cost much more. Home solar systems do at least reduce kerosene use, which is a big source of indoor air pollution. “That’s great news,” says Aklin. “Kerosene is nasty for health.”
When it comes to providing Few people in poor regions access to electricity, most gains can afford to buy a solar power will come from extending system outright. Instead, using a conventional grids, says Sivaram. payment system based on mobile And indeed many countries are phone credit, they pay M-KOPA trying to do exactly that. Both a deposit followed by small daily India, which has 260 million payments. After a year, they own people without electricity, and the system outright. If they miss Nigeria, which has 80 million, a payment, the system stops have ambitious plans to extend working until they resume. grid access. “We can turn them on and off But electrification will take remotely,” says Hughes. time. A 2015 report forecast So M-KOPA is effectively that less than 80 per cent of lending money to people who people in sub-Saharan Africa would never normally be able to will have access to electricity “Less than 80 per cent by 2040, for instance. of sub-Saharan Africans So off-grid solar does have a valuable role to play, says Sivaram. will have access to electricity by 2040” In the areas where grid access will be a long time coming or will never be practical, countries get a loan. “We have a really good should be encouraging private repayment rate, in excess of companies such as M-KOPA. 90 per cent,” says Hughes. That means getting rid of import This approach could allow tariffs that make solar expensive people to buy bigger appliances in some African countries, as well such as refrigerators, along with as the kerosene subsidy in India, farming equipment and maybe which makes it difficult for solar even electric cars (see “Climateto compete. friendly cooking”, below left). Providing electricity alone, “Our technology works with of course, isn’t enough. It’s no anything that turns on and off,” use having a socket if you have says Hughes. nothing to plug into it. This is Given this, full grid access won’t where the innovative business necessarily put companies like models M-KOPA is pioneering M-KOPA out of business, then. But could make a big difference. more surprisingly, they may be able to keep selling solar systems even to people with grid access. CLIMATE-FRIENDLY COOKING The grids in many countries are Around 3 billion people – including less polluting. Moving to solar would extremely unreliable, so solarmany with electricity – still cook be even better, says Mahesh Bhave, powered microgrids are likely to using solid fuels such as wood, whose firm Bhave Power Systems be used in conjunction with the dung and charcoal. This produces plans to sell induction cookers conventional grid. “The quality of plenty of indoor pollution and a third powered by solar-charged batteries. the grid is very poor. There are lots of the outdoor pollution plaguing “Nobody is thinking about [solar] of blackouts,” says Aklin. “I see South Asia. cooking,” he says. potential for a combined system.” You might think that wood and Running induction cookers requires These backup microgrids could dung are forms of renewable energy 1500 to 2000-watt systems, which is remain separate from the grid, and thus climate friendly, but cooking much more than most home solar can says Sivaram, or could be designed with them produces black carbon and currently provide, but is fast becoming to feed power into it. In other methane, both of which make the achievable as the prices of solar words, off-grid renewables could planet hotter. Phasing out traditional panels and batteries fall. end up merging with the grid, stoves would prevent tens of millions Bhave is also targeting homes making it more resilient. of premature deaths and reduce connected to the grid. He thinks he “It’s important to neither global warming by 0.1°C by 2100, can sell solar microgrids that run see off-grid as a magical perfect a study estimated earlier this year. induction cookers to relatively solution or useless,” says India is encouraging people to wealthy apartment blocks to act as Aklin. “The truth is somewhere switch to gas cookers, which are far a backup to unreliable mains power. in-between.” ■ 23/30 December 2017 | NewScientist | 23