Sunrise Kat

Hi, I'm the Associate Director of Impact at Acumen. Keep updated with what Acumen and I are up to here. All about: energy access, research, impact measurement.

[sunrisekat]

The Affordability of Solar: is access to off-grid energy within reach of the poor?

In the global effort to make off-grid energy, and solar in particular, affordable to the 1.2 billion people currently without energy, there have been a number of encouraging breakthroughs in the past decade. For example, the production cost of solar has fallen rapidly — down 80 percent since 2010 — and is likely to fall even further. Across many parts of Africa, a pay-as-you-go revolution — often built around the spread of mobile-banking — has transformed the purchase of solar energy. Unlike in the past, where consumers had to pay high upfront costs, today they are able to make incremental payments via smaller mobile money instalments.

When it comes to increasing solar’s affordability and bringing off-grid energy within reach of the poor, these trends are undoubtedly encouraging. However, the growth we’ve seen in the sector is still a drop in the ocean when compared to the 600 million Africans who continue to live beyond the grid.

Why, then, if solar has become so affordable, have key innovations such as solar home systems not scaled beyond the 600,000 or so systems sold across Africa to date?

Motivated by this very question, the CDC Group, the UK’s Development Finance Institution committed to catalysing greater inward investment in developing countries, asked Acumen to investigate just how affordable solar is to those who need it most. We undertook a review of current literature on everything that’s known about the ability of consumers in Africa to purchase off-grid energy, with a particular focus on solar.

Here’s what we learned:

Solar products, beyond lanterns, are currently out of reach of the extreme poor. Limited available data makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions. However, research on solar lantern customers across East Africa by SolarAid suggests that more than 80 percent of customers live in extreme poverty (below $1.90 per person per day). By contrast, data collected from customers across five solar home system and mini-grid companies across East Africa by Acumen using our Lean Data(SM) approach shows that a third of customers live below the relative poverty line of $3.10 per day. We believe that even this lower level of penetration of home solar systems into the base of the economic pyramid is impressive. But it also shows we still have a way to go before more powerful systems are made universally available to the very poorest.

Financing helps drive sales, but those accessing solar through credit don’t always understand what they’ve signed up for. Financing for solar offers huge promise in terms of making energy access more affordable. However, it is not without its challenges. A significant number of customers say that they find contracts and credit approval processes confusing, and feel uncertain about just what it is they’ve committed themselves to. Equipping sales agents to adequately explain these processes may be a way to cross the financial literacy divide and ensure customers do not overstretch their finances.

Access is about more than just affordability. Whilst affordability is undoubtedly a key factor in unlocking greater energy uptake for the poorest, as important are three further drivers of adoption: Awareness, Advantage, and Access. Lack of awareness and a lack of trust in the quality of solar products remain a major challenge when it comes to large-scale adoption of off-grid solar products and services. This is especially true where markets have been flooded with low-quality knock-offs. And while the sector might be growing, solar companies are currently concentrated in a few countries, mainly in East Africa, meaning consumers across the rest of the continent struggle to access products even where there is a willingness to buy.

We still have a lot to learn. While a picture of why and how poor customers gain access to off-grid energy is emerging, our review shows that it still remains relatively sketchy. There is more to discover about how to encourage greater affordability of solar products. Questions on our mind include: whether low-income customers are taking on too much financing to access solar products and therefore putting themselves at financial risk and, if so, how does that impact their ability to access and purchase off-grid power? What is the relative importance of affordability when compared to Awareness, Advantage and Access? And, do women purchase and value energy differently from men?

These findings have reinforced, rather than revolutionized, our understanding of the opportunities and constraints poor customers face when purchasing off-grid energy. That said, they remind us that when it comes to reaching poor, off-grid consumers, sweeping generalizations should be avoided and understanding nuance is key. While the majority of attention has been paid to falling costs of producing solar energy, this alone will not ensure the universal spread of off-grid energy. Many other factors are at play. For example significant consumer education is still required to explain the benefits of solar, particularly beyond East Africa, consumers may need greater protection especially where they take out loans, and, in order to reach the very poorest, prices for more powerful systems still need to fall further. The trends are all headed in the right direction, but much can still be done to turn 600 thousand consumers into 600 million.

To learn more about this work, please access the full report here.

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This is the fourth installment of a series of lessons from a range of new research into the social impact of off-grid energy in emerging markets. The research is complemented by Acumen’s own customer-based data collection applying ourLean Data approach. This work was originally conceived by Kat Harrison, formerly head of research and impact at SolarAid and now Acumen’s Associate Director of Impact.

Reposted from Acumen’s Energy Impact Series

[sunrisekat]

Context Matters: measuring the impact of solar in rural India

When it comes to decision making, it is sometimes said that a good choice made in the wrong context can be just as bad as a poor one made in the right setting. Context is key. It’s even more critical when it comes to creating social impact. So why, then, do so many of us in the social impact space seem surprisingly indifferent to context? All too often we assume that just because something creates impact in one setting, it’ll work just as well in an entirely different one.

Our new research into the impact of off-grid energy access in emerging markets across multiple geographies, products, and companies is helping us understand when context matters and why.

Energy provision across East Africa and India

Two of the previously published studies from our energy impact series have focused on East Africa. This is a geography characterized by woefully inadequate access to grid-based electricity. Only a third of Kenyans, a fifth of Ugandans and a shocking sixth of Tanzanians have access to the grid. This widespread absence of traditional electrification means that the majority of households must rely on expensive and potentially dangerous alternatives, such as kerosene, to light their homes. So when households gain access to improved solar power, we have seen significant improvements in economic- and health-related social benefits.

By contrast, in India, more than three quarters of the population have access to grid-based electricity. This extension of energy has in part been driven by the country’s ambitious goal to electrify all households by 2020. While this level of coverage sounds like good progress given India’s size, it still leaves 300 million people — a number equal to the combined population of 18 of East Africa’s 19 countries — either in the dark or reliant on dirty sources of energy. Moreover grid-based energy access is neither especially reliable nor is it equitably dispersed. In many parts of the country, particularly in rural areas, it is often the quality of electricity provided rather than access that prevents households from reaping the full benefits of energy provision.

For example in the northeastern state of Bihar, where nearly 90 percent of its almost 100 million people live in rural areas, average energy consumption is barely a sixth of the national average. This is precisely the reason that Acumen investeeHusk Power Systems, a mini-grid company providing solar-powered electricity to thousands of rural Indians, chose Bihar to set up shop. As is the case with many solar companies operating in places where the grid is failing, Husk competes with a wide range of alternative sources of energy such as kerosene, diesel and torches. For providers of solar energy, this landscape is not especially unusual, but the competition is especially intense in India—the country is the world’s sixth largest subsidizerof fossil fuels, including major government subsidies for kerosene.

Because of these differing circumstances, we were eager to investigate whether the positive impact of solar we had seen elsewhere would be equally effective in Bihar.

Researching the impact of solar in rural India

We set out to learn more about the impact Husk was having on various aspects of customers’ lives, such as their household assets, energy expenditure, nighttime activities, purchase of kerosene, and changes in children’s literacy and math skills. In partnership with researchers at J-Pal South Asia and with co-funding from LGTVP and USAID, we started a three-year, randomized controlled trial covering some 3,000 households across the East and West Champaran districts of Bihar. The researchers divided these households into three study groups — one with access to Husk’s services at full price, one with access to Husk’s energy services at a discount, and one that served as a control group with no access to Husk’s services.

Here’s what we learned:

Consumers of Husk Power are highly price sensitive. As part of the study, a quarter of the participants were offered a 50 percent discount on Husk’s monthly service price, from Rs. 200 ($3) to Rs. 100 ($1.50). In the areas where the price reduction was offered, demand for Husk’s services shot up from a two percent share of the market to an impressive 20 percent. As a result, the company is now looking at re-evaluating its entire pricing strategy. More broadly, households were more likely to purchase solar in areas dominated by diesel generators compared to those with a reliable grid.

Consumers of Husk Power use more electricity overall. Regardless of whether consumers of Husk’s services were offered a discount, their electricity usage increased significantly compared to the control group that did not have access. Families living in villages powered by Husk mini-grids saw a 38 percent increase in daily electricity use; those who received discounts increased their daily use by a whopping 77 percent. The researchers also saw double-digit increases in mobile phone usage, between 14 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

Kerosene purchase did not fall and total spending on energy remained unchanged. If there has been one consistent finding across Acumen’s surveying of thousands of low-income energy customers, it’s that when customers gain access to solar energy, kerosene usage falls dramatically (often to the point of total elimination). Much to our surprise, this fall in kerosene purchase failed to materialize for users of Husk’s mini-grids.

The reason for this is directly connected to the context in which Husk operates. In Bihar, kerosene is not readily available on the open market. Instead, families purchase an allotment, based on the size and poverty status of the household, from the government at a subsidized price. Anecdotal evidence suggests that families continue to take their full share of kerosene regardless of whether they use Husk’s services. They then find other uses for it, such as paint thinner or as a fuel additive, or they trade it on the black market typically in exchange for diesel power.

Better lighting had a small yet significant effect on educational performance. Unlike other studies on solar lighting’s impact on children’s study time, the researchers found that kids in homes with Husk Power Systems did indeed read more at night. As a result, those children saw an increase in scores by as much as 13 percent in both reading literacy and math.

The effect of context on social impact

These results, as compared to those from our studies in East Africa, paint a more nuanced picture of the impact of off-grid solar in India. Certainly, there are some highly encouraging findings, particularly those related to educational performance. However, the fact that overall spending on kerosene did not decrease — an almost universal finding elsewhere and something we at Acumen have historically considered a surefire sign of impact — suggests that the economic and environmental impacts of solar on households in rural Bihar may be lower than in East Africa.

The fact that context can play such an important role in impact suggests that for those serious about understanding and creating lasting social change it’s not enough just to assume that a solution, product or innovation will be impactful. This is true even where that assumption is predicated on significant prior evidence. Instead, in all but the rarest of cases, we need to investigate the impact we create with new data, direct from the end-consumers.

This should come as little surprise. Social transformation is complex, often personal and prone to change over time as societies themselves also change.This is not cause for despair, but rather a reminder of the importance of continual learning when it to comes to measuring social impact.

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This is the third installment of a series of lessons from a range of new research into the social impact of off-grid energy in emerging markets. The research is complemented by Acumen’s own customer-based data collection applying ourLean Data approach. This work was originally conceived by Kat Harrison, formerly head of research and impact at SolarAid and now Acumen’s Associate Director of Impact.

Written by Tom Adams, reposted from the Acumen Energy Impact Series.

[sunrisekat]

A Cleaner Path: solar energy’s impact on health

Imagine for a moment that the light used in your home was a poison. One that could damage your lungs, irritate your eyes, even impact the health of your unborn child. You’d think twice about flicking on that switch. Kerosene lamps—used by an estimated 290 million people across Africa—contribute to household air pollution. Such pollution is responsible for more deaths a year than tuberculosis, malaria and HIV combined.

Fortunately there is a solution that promises to make a big impact on improving household air quality. Solar products such as lanterns and rooftop systems offer a pollution-free, cost-effective alternative for lighting homes through the night. They can replace dimmer, older, dirtier forms of lighting, such as kerosene, which expose users to potentially severe health risks from smoke and soot. Solar is becoming increasingly popular in developing countries, led by the success of Acumen investees such as d.light, SolarNow and Devergy amongst others.

Despite decades of kerosene fuel usage, it is only relatively recently that there has been a recognition that smoke from kerosene lamps and cookstoves might present a serious health risk. Studies have associated kerosene use in homes with tuberculosis, and poor neonatal and maternal health. As a result the fuel is strongly discouraged by the World Health Organization (WHO) for household use.

While we know solar holds incredible potential for the poor, there is little research on how switching from kerosene to solar impacts a family’s health. In partnership with SolarAid and researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and with funding from Google, we set about addressing this gap in knowledge. Our study in Busia County, Kenya, was focused on quantifying changes in exposure to fine particulate matter (PM), a common air pollutant, and carbon monoxide (CO) following a switch from kerosene to solar.

The study used a range of methods to measure exposure. These included traditional survey-based data collection but also a range of sensors that gathered precise information on pollution levels. Devices were fitted to kerosene and solar lamps to monitor duration of usage. Temperature changes were used to record the use of kerosene lamps. Solar lamp use was tracked by a sensor connected to the on/off switch. Instruments were fitted across the house to measure household concentrations of both PM and CO. And to measure personal exposure to PM and CO, two participants—typically the mother and a school pupil—wore vests containing light-weight monitors for 48 hours.

Here’s what we learned:

Kerosene users believe the fuel affects their health. More than nine out of ten of all household members said that kerosene lamps affected their breathing. A quarter of adults reported wheezing and three fifths of the children reported waking up at night to cough. Every child we spoke to complained that smoke in their eyes made it harder for them to read.

People prefer solar to kerosene. Our study gave three solar lamps to kerosene-using households. One month later, sensor-based measurements indicated that all houses had reduced their use of kerosene lamp by at least 90 percent, indicating a clear preference for solar above kerosene. Measurements also showed that this transition was rapid, occurring within days of receiving the solar lamps.

Solar users experienced a meaningful reduction in exposure to household air pollution. Prior to the introduction of solar lanterns, kerosene use was associated with substantial exposure to PM in both adults and schoolchildren. Reduction in exposure following the distribution of solar lamps averaged 73 percent among schoolchildren and 50 percent among adults. This finding is encouraging. This was a relatively short study, but if solar lamps continue to be used in place of kerosene lamps, it is likely that there would be health benefits as a consequence of the reduction in air pollution.

Achieving a “safe” level of exposure to pollution would require reducing use of other dangerous fuels. Unfortunately, kerosene is not the only potentially dangerous fuel the poor use on a daily basis. Our study found that, according to WHO standards, adults who made the switch to solar were still exposed to an unsafe level of pollution in their homes. This was in large part due to the use of “traditional” cooking stoves—open fires, typically burning wood or charcoal—which are also a major contributor to household air pollution. Therefore to achieve acceptably low levels of exposure for everyone in the family, it will be necessary to reduce other sources of pollution alongside kerosene.

To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to look specifically at the dangers of kerosene. By comparison, the negative impact of cooking indoors with firewood and charcoal has been studied extensively. This research is an important first step towards understanding how kerosene affects the health of low-income families. We believe that these lessons are vital for governments, businesses, and members of households responsible for making decisions that will impact the health and well-being of their families. If we want to reduce the scourge of household air pollution, it is essential to eradicate the use of kerosene. To that end, solar energy is our best bet.

If you would like to learn more about our research, you can find a summary report here, and the full academic paper here.

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This is the second installment of a series of lessons from a range of new research into the social impact of off-grid energy in emerging markets. The research is complemented by Acumen’s own customer-based data collection applying our Lean Data approach. This work was originally conceived by Kat Harrison, formerly head of research and impact at SolarAid and now Acumen’s Associate Director of Impact.

Reposted from Acumen’s Energy Impact Series

[sunrisekat]

Lighting the Way: solar energy’s impact on poverty

In the last decade, solar lanterns have emerged as a clean, cost-effective solution to provide access to modern energy to the 1.2 billion people currently living off-grid. These small, portable and rechargeable lights fulfill an immediate need for the poor and, as a result, have become increasingly widespread in countries across Africa, South Asia and beyond. They are affordable, easy to use and require little maintenance. And for families who’ve become accustomed to life stopping when the sun sets, a solar lantern can mean hours of light to enjoy dinner together, do homework for class tomorrow, or keep a business open a little later.

While it’s clear at a basic level that access to energy has the potential to transform a family’s standard of living — from cutting monthly costs to contributing to the improved health of a household — there is little academic evidence connecting solar lights to poverty alleviation. With solar energy quickly becoming a smart, cheap and cleaner alternative to fossil fuels, we want to understand its impact on the lives of the poor. With funding from Google, and in partnership with SolarAid and ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, we set out three years ago to learn more about solar energy’s impact on the alleviation of income poverty.

The research worked with more than 1000 low-income households in rural Kenya to learn more how they valued small-scale solar products. In Africa,nearly 70 percent of households do not have access to electricity and, in rural Kenya alone, roughly 93 percent of the population lives without electricity. The study set out to understand how these households used solar products, how much they save and the impact they had in their day-to-day lives.

Here’s what we learned:

Solar lanterns save cash. As part of the research, low-income customers were offered a variety of solar lanterns at market price, subsidized prices, or free of charge, enabling families to replace kerosene lamps with a clean solar light. As a result, households reduced their monthly expenditure on energy by roughly half, freeing between one to two percent of total household expenditure.

Price matters. As anticipated, the demand for solar lanterns was heavily connected to the price offered. Close to 69 percent of households jumped at the opportunity to purchase a light at a discounted rate of $4 while only 29 percent made the purchase at the market price of $9. But 100 percent took the opportunity to use a solar light when offered free. Of course, it’s no surprise that demand rises with a lower price, but this is the first evidence of the extent of price-sensitivity of low income consumers.

Poorer households spend a larger share of their total expenditure on energy. The findings show that the poorest households spend a relatively large proportion of their income on energy (the poorest quintile spent around 10 percent of their total expenditure in energy). But as families become wealthier, energy expenditure falls as a proportion of total expenditure (the average across all households was around 5 percent of their total expenditure).

Everyone loves (and uses) a solar lantern. They’re easy to use and, whether households were given a lantern free of charge or paid for them, their usage and behavior didn’t change. This suggests that users derive value from the lights regardless of how they obtain them. It could mean that there is a role for subsidy in reaching the very poorest with lighting.

These lessons are helping prove that solar lanterns play a small but significant role in improving the economic welfare of the poor. By fulfilling an immediate need, solar lights are the fastest and least expensive way for low-income families to access modern energy and move up the energy ladder. They also provide valuable insight to companies, governments and nonprofits about the price sensitivity of different types of consumers, in order to support market development, vital in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal of universal energy access by 2030.

If you’d like to read more about the results of the research, there is a summary report here and the full academic working paper here.

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This is the first installment of a series of lessons from a range of new research into the social impact of off-grid energy in emerging markets. The research is complemented by Acumen’s own customer-based data collection applying our Lean Data approach. This work was originally conceived by Kat Harrison, formerly head of research and impact at SolarAid and now Acumen’s Associate Director of Impact.

Reposted from Acumen’s Energy Impact Series

[sunrisekat]

The Energy Impact Series

We live in a world that is piloting driverless cars and commercial space flight yet, when the sun goes down across the globe, one in six people live more or less in darkness.

For these 1.2 billion mostly poor, mostly rural people, a lack of reliable, affordable energy has an overwhelmingly negative impact on their lives. It harms their prospects of working their way out of poverty, forces them into the paradox of spending up to one hundred times more than you or I on inferior energy products such as kerosene lamps, and exposes them to life-threatening indoor pollutants. Traditional fossil fuel alternatives also emit high volumes of the world’s top two contributors to climate warming: carbon dioxide and black carbon.

At Acumen, we’ve been obsessed with what it means to live off grid since we started investing in energy in 2007. In the last decade, we’ve made more than 20 investments in companies providing solutions from biomass-powered mini-grids to pay-as-you-go solar home systems. We’ve learned that not only is there a significant — and growing — demand for off-grid energy but there is also a number of fantastic enterprises emerging to meet this need. These are exciting times as we’re reaching a tipping point that makes achieving energy access for all seem closer than ever.

But while we’ve long known that the social benefits of renewable energy are intuitive, there has been a surprising lack of quality evidence, even as the sector matures, about how, why, and to what degree access to energy is actually improving people’s lives. For example we’ve known little about families’ spending on energy and what shapes their decisions as well as the impact improved energy access has on household finances, health, opportunities for education, income generation, and movement up the energy ladder.

This lack of evidence has had some very real implications. For example, it has hindered our ability to understand the benefits of greater investment in the sector and led, in some instances, to skepticism concerning the social returns in comparison to more established forms of poverty alleviation such as investment in health, education, or clean water.

Moreover, achieving such an ambitious goal as energy for all — a target of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals — requires considerable collaboration across government, social and private sectors. A lack of evidence has hampered our cross-cutting discussions with governments, restricting policy dialogue and the ability to develop products and services that best meet the needs of off-grid populations.

To help fill this gap in knowledge, we are kicking off a series featuring new, breakthrough research that seeks to answer questions at the cutting edge of impact and off-grid energy. It is the culmination of years of work conceived and initiated by Kat Harrison, who previously worked at SolarAidand now leads Acumen’s work on the impact of our energy investments. Together these findings form the sector’s most extensive collection of academic research, complemented by Acumen’s own customer-based data on our energy portfolio using our Lean Data approach, which we will share this summer.

Through this series, we’ll share insights and hard evidence on the links between solar energy and poverty, health and education along with an assessment of the energy ladder as it exists today. This work has been executed in partnership with research powerhouses ETH Zurich, UC Berkeley,Stanford, United Nations Capital Development Fund, JPAL and more.

We hope you find this research as illuminating as we do and welcome your feedback to help guide our future work. This is a big step forward in unpacking the impact of off-grid energy, but it is by no means the end of what there is learn about the life-changing effects of access to energy.

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Written by Tom Adams, reposted from Acumen’s Energy Impact Series

[sunrisekat]

Baseline results from education study

You might have heard about the research study on the impact of solar lighting on educational outcomes in Zambia that was dreamed up at SolarAid in 2014. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Stanford University are co-funding this study and I’m managing it here at Acumen (more on the move of the SolarAid research and impact work to Acumen here). d.light have kindly donated S2 solar lights for the study.

The research will focus on tracking the academic performance, school attendance and secondary school advancement of primary school students, and will also devote significant efforts to uncovering changes in study patterns, use of "free" time, and the potentially complicated interplay between energy access, poverty, gender, and education. 

The baseline research has been completed, a lottery of prizes including d.light S2 solar lights, were randomly given to students, and the next stage of the research is to revisit schools and conduct follow up research to identify any changes. Results will be shared in April 2017.

You can find a summary report on the GOGLA resources page here, and here are some interesting findings from the baseline research:

29% of students said they missed school because their school fees were not paid.

Male students were most likely to do their homework immediately after school, whereas female students were most likely to do it very late at night. 

67% of students reported that they work on most days to earn money and 34% of these do so to earn money to pay for school. 

83% of households used torches (flashlights) for lighting. 

Follow me on Twitter to keep updated on results.

[sunrisekat]

The energy ladder

Power for All: What is the Energy Ladder?

Kat Harrison: Once a family purchases a small solar light - an ‘entry-level’ product, it is envisaged that over time they are more willing and able to buy more energy or to upgrade to larger systems, perhaps one that includes phone charging or is able to power a radio, or onwards to a  system which powers TV and other appliances. This movement is called the energy ladder; it’s the journey by which someone is able to have more of their energy needs and desires met.

Is there evidence that people are moving up the energy ladder?

It is a logical argument and there is anecdotal evidence that this is happening already as well as some research—including that done by my team whilst at SolarAid; >60% solar light users in Zambia said they wanted to buy a solar product with more capacity after using a solar light, and 90% felt more able to do so because of savings they had made from no longer needing to buy kerosene or other alternatives—but, this is a young industry so there is no rigorous data yet that helps us understand what influences a person’s journey to access greater levels of energy supply, or more importantly, whether it is actually happening. In rural parts of Africa where populations live off-grid, there is often not the opportunity for families to move up the ladder i.e. they may be able to buy a solar light, but there is no solar home system provider operating in their area yet, this then restricts their chance to move up the ladder.

That’s why the UNCDF CleanStart Programme is funding a year-long research project to conduct a study on this in Uganda which launched in February. I co-manage this and Professor Arne Jacobson and his team at Humboldt State University will be conducting the study to try and answer questions including:

Does owning an entry-level solar light increase the likelihood of obtaining access to higher capacities of energy access?

What pattern does adoption take when considering substitution of other methods like kerosene lamps?

Does increased energy access lead to increased communications through mobile phones? If so, how does this access affect financial inclusion, especially with services like mobile-money?

Do flexible payment/financial mechanisms enhance adoption of clean energy in terms of speed and volume?

The research team will be interviewing users of products at different stages of the ladder, in partnership with organisations operating on the ground, to try to answer these questions.

What’s interesting too, is that Arne and his team are looking not at an energy ladder but at an energy staircase—so it’s less about families jumping from one rung to another but about building the foundations of their energy access and ‘stacking’ their products and services. What this means is that families may buy a small solar light, then in time buy access to a solar home system but they may be unlikely to stop using their pico-solar light, they may instead have better access to a suite of options; after all, pico-solar lights offer portability that a solar home system may not.

What is the value of this research?

Well, we hope to better understand not only how families gain energy access, but what mechanisms or support processes may help to speed up this process or reduce the distance between the steps on the staircase. For example, there is indication that the advent of financing models like pay-as-you-go, solar as a service (utility model), or rent-to-own, all pushdown uptake cost and de-risk investment so that families are able to skip the first step or two on the staircase and go straight to a solar home system through monthly-instalment payments. This is really exciting for thinking about what enabling systems or processes already exist, and what can be designed, to reduce the tread on different steps of the staircase e.g. how to make steps shallower and more accessible for more of the population.

What the study is also exploring is the link between energy access, communication (through mobiles) and financial inclusion. Our goal is to use this knowledge to drive action that will speed up energy access for the 1.1 billion currently unelectrified.

When will the research be finalised?

The study will wrap up in early 2017 but we hope to do some early analysis in the late summer this year, and I’ll be sharing updates on this research and more on Twitter throughout the year. What’s great too is that if this study shows particularly relevant or useful findings there is already interest to scope it out further and dive deeper into these linkages and opportunities.

Originally posted on the Power for All blog.

[sunrisekat]

The latest on the recycling research

Want an update on the SolarAid/Acumen and University of Edinburgh PhD looking at solar waste, recycling and repair? Your wish is my command:

The growth of the off-grid solar industry is good news for development, however, with a limited lifespan, the large number of solar lanterns and home systems being distributed in sub-Saharan Africa is also adding to the region’s existing problems with electronic waste (e-waste).

To understand this issue further and to explore opportunities to respond, the University of Edinburgh and SolarAid[1] created a three-year PhD project to explore end-of-life issues in the off-grid solar sector in sub-Saharan Africa. The three-year project aims to produce recommendations as to how actors can take action to minimise waste, facilitate recycling, and encourage repair. Firstly by looking at what is happening now, what parallel markets are doing, and then identifying viable solutions that would allow the industry to react and strengthen the sustainability of the sector.

The project is being led by Declan Murray and focuses on Kenya; chosen as the most advanced market in the region. Kenya’s longer exposure to solar technologies means that broken, discarded, and waste solar products are already present in the country. To ensure that the findings of this project remain relevant beyond Kenya, and that key players can inform its direction, Declan sits on the GOGLA Working Group on Sustainable Value Chains.  

In the first 18 months of the project Declan has undertaken advanced research training and designed the fieldwork portion of the project. Declan also completed a four-week secondment at SolarAid’s London office, where he ran a pilot survey of solar users in Kenya. A follow-up is planned to further investigate attitudes towards, and awareness of, waste. In addition, Declan has already conducted primary research in Dubai, Mombasa and Nairobi looking at solar supply chains and logistics.  

Declan is now conducting the field research. It covers five areas:

Repair opportunities: Declan is training to be a repairman in Bomet town in the lower Rift Valley to get first-hand experience of how repair networks operate and factors affecting the success rate of repairs.

End-user behaviour: conducting a follow-up to last year’s pilot survey will provide additional insight into how users in Bungoma county decide what to do with solar waste and where in the home they put it.

Legacy learning: tracking down and visiting some of Kenya’s earliest solar installations will also uncover how solar waste has been treated so far and identify lessons from past experience.

Viable solutions: Declan will be interviewing industry, government and NGO actors in Nairobi to ensure his recommendations are compatible with the interests and resources of the sector players.

Waste activities: there will also be time spent observing waste workers in Isiolo County to inform Declan on how solar waste might interact with existing waste economies in Kenya if not already doing so.

If you would like to get in touch with Declan, please email him at [email protected], follow him on Twitter @declanrmurray or visit his blog solarandotherstories.wordpress.com

[1] Due to a restructure at SolarAid, much of the research and impact work has been rehomed at Acumen. Kat Harrison, Associate Director of Impact is continuing to supervise the research from there.

[sunrisekat]

New reports on impact of energy access

In an update the Acumen team recently shared we can see some of the great progress that has been made in developing and distributing affordable and reliable solutions to provide access to energy, in part due to the innovative entrepreneurs that Acumen invest in. Solar household solutions have been expanding reach in the last decade, and have received much attention, even more so now that the new Sustainable Development Goals include a goal focused on energy access, something which the Millennium Development Goals omitted. More recently, new models of distribution and of financing these solar solutions have enabled lower income households to be a part of the momentum. And this is key to poverty reduction because the impact of energy access goes beyond just the light or power it brings; families save money, their children are able to study for longer, their children’s teachers are better able to plan for class, the whole family can improve their health, the community’s well-being is increased by having the time and opportunity to keep their family safe and reduce the risk of fires, and everyone benefits as the use of kerosene lamps dwindle and greenhouse gas emissions polluted into the atmosphere reduced. While the positive impacts of this access are pretty well known, there hasn’t been a great body of evidence for the extent of the impacts…..until now. 

A new set of reports, prepared for the UK Department for International Development to support the newly-launched Energy Africa campaign, have just been published – Accelerating access to electricity in Africa with off-grid solar. Written by ODI, Practical Action, GOGLA and SolarAid, the reports review solar markets in sub-Saharan Africa, identify policy measures to support solar household solutions, and present evidence of the impact.

The report focusing on the impact of these solar systems is a rare chance to have all the latest evidence and knowledge distilled in one place; a synthesis of everything that has been learnt so far on what a difference access to modern energy can have for those living off-grid in Africa.

Some of the key numbers highlight just how important access to energy is for those living in rural Africa; families are spending 10% of household income for light at night, and yet saving $60 a year – a huge amount to a family living below the poverty line – once adopting a simple solar light. In fact, replacing a dangerous and polluting kerosene lamp with a solar light can offer returns on investment of 15-45 times the cost of the solar light.

A lot of the information in the report comes from SolarAid’s research and impact work – which along with me, has recently been rehomed at Acumen. And while this new information enables us all to better understand the numbers showcasing the difference energy access can make, it’s often the words that add colour to the story. Sithembile Kasambala, a mother of seven from rural Malawi says as a result of her solar light, “We live a happy life now when darkness comes.”

Is there still more to learn and discover when it comes to off-grid solar energy solutions? Absolutely, and that learning will come through entrepreneurs like those in Acumen’s energy portfolio exploring, testing, and taking risks to find more creative, innovative and affordable solutions to reaching the poor. That learning will also come through research to better understand customer behaviour, usage patterns, and adoption drivers. Excitingly, there are already some research projects underway that are focusing not just on proving impact but improving impact; what strategies or distribution models are most effective at pushing up the impact links between solar lighting and educational outcomes, for example, or how can we support people to take that journey up the energy ladder to have more of their energy needs met? At Acumen we’re driving this research, refining and delivering our own lean data approach, and continuing to share what we learn. Most importantly, we’ll be listening to the results and reacting and responding to them to inform our decisions and shape our strategy.

After all, if there’s a way to make more families like Sithembile’s have a happier life, then that’s a win in our book.  

[sunrisekat]

Research on the energy ladder: Uganda

There is a theory that when someone living in a developing country buys a small solar-powered product such as a solar light, that over time they are more able and willing to buy a much larger and more expensive home system – to have more of their energy needs met. This is called the energy ladder and there is some anecdotal evidence of this but no strong evidence. So, UNCDF’s CleanStart Programme is funding a research team from Humboldt State University, led by Professor Arne Jacobson, to conduct a yearlong study on this, in Uganda. The study is being co-managed by me at Acumen, with support from GSMA and GOGLA.

“What happens after someone has their first taste of solar-powered lights?” says Vincent Wierda, CleanStart Programme Manager. “Do they stop using kerosene? Do they move onto bigger systems that can power multiple lights, maybe even a TV? Do energy loans or pay-as-you-go financing options help them to move faster up the ladder?”

The study will also provide much-need data on the ways that energy product purchases are affected by the availability of consumer financing options, access to mobile phones or other mobile devices, access to mobile banking and other related factors.

The research team will study a random sample of off-grid solar product buyers in Uganda and record their purchasing histories for energy products. The team will also follow the subjects’ activities over the coming year to see if and why customers buy additional products and services and whether their purchases are made with cash or through the use of financing mechanisms like pay-as-you-go enabled by mobile money or loans from microfinance institutions.

“The off-grid solar sector is growing rapidly in East Africa, with millions more people benefitting from increased energy access every year,” Prof. Jacobson explains. “While this is promising, off-grid solar technologies hold even greater promise if creative efforts can increase access to larger systems. Research that collectively helps us understand the factors that influence how and why people adopt off-grid solar products is needed to realize the full potential of the technology.”  

Read more here, and follow me on Twitter for updates – results in 2017.

[sunrisekat]

SolarAid research move to Acumen

Big news, Acumen, the global social impact organisation, has announced the rehoming of our award-winning Research and Impact department at SolarAid. With the move, Acumen builds on its decade of investing in off-grid energy, further deepening its understanding of the energy needs of low-income populations while measuring the social impact of newly electrified individuals and households. Acumen began investing in off-grid energy solutions in 2007 and today has the largest portfolio of companies committed to serving the poor.

This acquisition provides Acumen with access to SolarAid’s extensive databases and research networks in East Africa, and brings me onto Acumen’s staff. I will be building on all the work as Acumen’s new Associate Director of Impact.

“There is much we still don’t know about the impact of off-grid energy solutions on the lives of the poor,” said Acumen’s Chief Innovation Officer Sasha Dichter. “Even within Acumen’s energy portfolio, it is a challenge to gather robust data on how poor customers are using off-grid energy products, and the long-term impact our energy companies are having in alleviating poverty. With Kat and SolarAid’s research now powering our work, we can start to truly understand how energy is transforming the lives of the poor.”

I’ll continue to lead a number of research projects initiated at SolarAid and supported by major funders. These projects include the first large-scale study on the impact of solar lights on poverty reduction, supported byGoogle, and an investigation on the impact of solar lighting on education outcomes in partnership with Stanford University, supported by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

The arrangement with SolarAid comes on the heels of a major year in Acumen’s investing history, in which it added nine new social enterprises to its clean energy portfolio. Acumen’s investing in these companies is to drive innovation to find faster, more efficient solutions that provide the poor with new opportunities and the promise of a brighter future. While providing access to energy to the poor has been a core component of Acumen’s approach to tackling poverty, its vision is to create an off-grid solar ecosystem that fills in the missing gaps in the value chain and accelerates energy access across the developing world. Since 2007, Acumen has invested more than $17 million in 15 off-grid renewable energy companies working across India, Pakistan and East Africa.

“We’re obviously sad to be saying goodbye to Kat but we’re delighted to have found a new home for our award-winning Research and Impact department,” said SolarAid’s UK Operations Director, Richard Turner. “Acumen shares many of the same values and goals that we hold—including an unwavering commitment to catalyzing solar markets for the poor—and we are confident that Kat’s research will go from strength to strength, taking what we have built to the next level. And most importantly, improving energy access in some of the poorest regions of the world.”

You can learn more about Acumen’s energy portfolio here, and continue to follow me on Twitter for updates and more news!

[sunrisekat]

A new home for SolarAid research: coming soon

It’s been another landmark year for SunnyMoney, with record sales and some huge milestones achieved. But there have been big challenges too with floods in Malawi, teacher strikes in Kenya and a surge in fake lights in Tanzania.

Financial challenges have meant that SolarAid and SunnyMoney have had to quickly adapt to ensure we can continue to help build markets right across Africa.

So, SolarAid have made the decision to focus more on our core on-the-ground operations which means, I am sad to say, our Research & Impact team will no longer be based at SolarAid. Much of the wonderful research team in Africa and I are saying our farewells, but we want to make sure all our work can continue to support the sector and are looking forward to sharing where we land in a month or two.

You can read a bit more about this on the SolarAid website here and follow me on Twitter for updates.

[sunrisekat]

Ray of Sunshine: my favourites

You may have already heard that SolarAid are having to make some hard decisions and are restructuring and refocusing. This means that the Research & Impact department is being discontinued at SolarAid. We hope to share some positive news on the future, next week, but for now, here’s a collection of my favourite things SunnyMoney solar light users in Africa have told the research team over the last three years since we set up the research function: 

“We live a happy life now when darkness comes because we are able to light our home for a long time [with our solar light].” Sithembile Kasambala, Karonga, Malawi

“[Since the solar light] my lifestyle has changed, my kids eat well, study well and we are a happy family now.” Dickson Murumbi in Kenya

“A lot of things have changed [thanks to the solar light]; the house is brighter and the children are happy.” Weakness Mwenelupembe in Malawi

“[The solar light] helps my children to study more – that will make them have development in the future.” Christina Fenansi, Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

“As a family, [the solar light] helps us to share experiences of the day.” Frank Asiye in Malawi

“Kerosene was expensive for me so I did not allow [my daughter] to study at night but now she is free to study any time [with the solar light].” Honoratha Elipidi in Tanzania

“As a family [the solar light] helps us to come together at night,” Johnson Mwalukuwa in Malawi

“Now, even the time that I travel I am not worrying about the safety of the house or my children in darkness.” Gulinja Gulinja, Tanzania

"I will spend [the savings] on Christmas; going to buy meat and clothing for my children." Robert Mutaki, Uganda

"The solar light is brighter than candlelight or kerosene lanterns. [With the savings] I buy books for my children." Josephine Sialubinda, Zambia

[sunrisekat]

Ray of Sunshine: meeting more energy needs

You may have heard that the UNCDF is commissioning a study on the energy ladder in Uganda, in partnership with us at SolarAid, and some other great names (GSMA, GOGLA). 

Well, we wanted to find out through our own research a few things related to this. From interviews with over 1,750 SunnyMoney solar light customers, our research teams in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia have found that 75% of customers with an entry-level solar light (that’s the small, portable ones with one light) who were followed up with 6-9 months after purchase, said they were interested to buy a light with more capacity. And of these customers interested to buy a light which can meet more of their energy needs, 50% said they felt more able to do so since buying the SunnyMoney solar light.

24% of the respondents said they’d like to expand their system to have more lights, 21% would like to charge phones, 19% mentioned wanting brighter lights, and another 19% said they’d like to charge their radio.

For 86% of those interviewed, it was their first solar product, and for 58% they didn’t know where they could buy another solar light…..so it looks like there is still lots to do to make sure that people living off-grid can be reached with safe, affordable energy. 

[sunrisekat]

Ray of Sunshine: solar agent Gladys

Last week, the SolarAid research team in Kenya were following up with SunnyMoney solar light agents. Meet Gladys Magut, a shopkeeper in the Rift Valley who became an agent in March this year.

“We are a farmers co-operative society situated in the flower farms where workers have come together to put their savings. So, we purchase the lights on their behalf and they pay in installments. One of your people came to me and introduced themselves and since here most of the people do not have electricity we decided to buy. We have tried other solar lights but your products are the best quality out of all of them; they are the leading lights.”

How does Gladys let people know about the solar lights? “By word of mouth – I always walk around during my free time telling people about the lights and the benefits one gains from the lights. When I visit people in their homes and see they have no electricity and they are using either kerosene or candles, I always know this is a potential customer so I tell them about the lights.”

Find out more about SunnyMoney agents here.

[sunrisekat]

Ray of Sunshine: Goal 5 girls’ opportunities

Goal 5 of the Global Goals is about gender equality; in this week’s Ray of Sunshine, find out how solar lights can provide opportunities for girls in rural communities. 

Juliet and Lilian, SolarAid’s Research Assistants in Kenya, interviewed a group of headteachers in Nyamira county last week. There were quite a few teachers noticing improvements in opportunities for girls at their school thanks to the solar lights:

Mr Evans Ombui, headteacher of Etono Primary School says, “Here in Nyamira most of the parents are poor but those who can afford have bought [a solar light] for their children and we have seen a big change in their children’s school performance. I have noticed that the girls really wake up early and take advantage of the lights and study.“

“Some pupils have really improved, and I think it is because of the light our performance mean score has changed. Girls are doing better, they are positive about the lights and using the lights more. The reason, I think, is because they are more at home than the boys,” says Mr William Ndubi, headteacher of Kegogi Primary School.

Headteacher at Gekondo Primary School, Mr John Momanyi believes, “[The solar lights] have really helped the children to manage their time well as they get to school early, finish their homework in time. The light is good as it’s portable; children walk with them to school as they leave their homes quite early when it is still dark. Most of the girls are very interested in the lights as they are the ones who use them in the kitchen so they get to use the light more and so I have noticed a change in their performance.“

“I noticed before they bought the lights they were not performing so well but after they bought the lights there has been a great improvement in their mean score and it is most of the them as they have time to study; they do not have to struggle with going to look for kerosene. It is mostly the girls as I saw even two girls went to very good schools after their final examination; I can attribute that to the introduction of the lights,” shares Mr Jeremiah Tanchi, headteacher of Esanige Primary School.

You can find out more about SolarAid’s work in our latest Impact Report, released last week.

[sunrisekat]

SolarAid 2015 Impact Report

Hello from SolarAid Impact Week! Our latest Impact Report shares what we’ve achieved over the last 12 months and latest developments.

The last financial year saw some pretty big milestones for our social enterprise, SunnyMoney. We successfully catalysed one frontier market in Tanzania where solar light sales are at unprecedented levels, and took great strides towards a second in Kenya. In April, we reached a milestone of SunnyMoney solar lights reaching 10 million people. We were finalists in the Zayed Future Energy Prize, highly commended in the Unilever Global Development Award and received a platinum rating for GIIRS for our impact measurement. SunnyMoney once again broke their own sales records, selling 620,000 solar lights in remote communities.

There are going to be some changes going forward though; SolarAid and SunnyMoney will have to adapt to an ever changing off-grid energy market. We are beginning to put into place a new strategy and realign our efforts to provide a bigger focus on our core on-the-ground operations. As a result of this refocus we will be discontinuing our award-winning Research and Policy work at SolarAid; hoping to find a new home so that we can continue with the vital work for the benefit of the sector as a whole. We’ll keep you updated of progress on this front. 

For now, please enjoy the Impact Report and reading all about the incredible impact of these little solar lights across rural Africa.