December 2008 Archives

We recently visited the Luhunga Secondary School in the Mufindi District of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.

Luhunga Secondary School.

While evaluating potential schools for macrosolar installations, I pay attention to whether the school has the management commitment and business acumen to generate income which will maintain the solar system for many years to come.

Solar systems cost money to maintain and SolarAid anticipates that in addition to donating panels to schools in need, the organisation also needs to empower the schools to generate sufficient funds to maintain the system. Hence, questions on business plans and income generating ideas become standard questions in our evaluation.

The library at Luhunga that will be light through solar power.

The Headmaster at Luhunga showed minimal hesitation in seeing the economic benefit for solar. He readily agreed to a co-payment of 10% and was confident that he could easily raise these funds in a short period of time.

As I worked with him on income-generating estimates, I realised that a sizeable market exists for technologies that could harness the energy of the sun. In mobile phone charging alone, the market could reach about £5,000 per month for a village with approximately 3000 "working" adults.

The teacher also estimated a sizeable market exists for the charging of large batteries. Currently, the villagers pay 1000 Tsh (about 60p) per charge and have to take their batteries to an in-town charging facility about 1.5 hours away by car.

The Headmaster of Luhunga Secondary School with the kerosene lanterns he hopes to rid with the installation of solar panels.

But the easiest form of income generation is simply the replacement of money used to buy kerosene. Currently, Luhunga Secondary School uses kerosene for evening classes and charges each student 1000 Tsh per month on kerosene supply alone which means the school could save a total 450,000 Tsh (£230) per month by switching to solar.

More from me soon,
Irna

It's not always straightforward to select a school for macrosolar installations. There are several factors to consider. This is why the process includes several visits to the school and proof of community buy-in of the system. For example, look at the photo below:

Kisiwa Secondary School

This is Kisiwa Secondary School. There are several factors to evaluate before placing a solar system here. The school is remote which means that it has little chance of being connected to the grid in the near future. The lack of connection in the surrounding villages means there is high potential for earning income from electricity, the money of which can be invested in the maintenance of the system.

However, one downside is that the school itself is located some distance (about 500 metres) from the village, and considering the high snake population in the area (as I was told after traipsing through the ground in my flip flops) it is not placed conveniently for the community's use in the evening, therefore reducing the impact of the solar system on community members.

But then another benefit of selecting this school for macrosolar is that two girls' dormitories have recently been completed on the site. As secondary schools are few and far between in this region, girls are often required to travel long distances to school each day, sometimes in the dark. These dormitories will vastly reduce travel time, increase safety, and if SolarAid gets involved, will enable them to study in their dormitories at night!

As you can see, there are several factors to consider. This school is currently undergoing the application process.

SolarAid's vehicle, with some appropriate artwork on the tyre cover!

Finally, can you recognise the tyre cover in the picture above, from the SolarAid website? This was painted by one of the local Tinga Tinga artists outside of the Dar Es Salaam office!

More from me soon,
Courtney

Our SolarAid crew of three embarked on a trip to Mtwara to undertake a second assessment for macrosolar installations for schools in the region.

Mason and I going through the SolarAid macrosolar assessment process with the Vice Headmaster and teachers from Dihimba Secondary School. Prosper (bottom left) is our local solar consultant.

One of our favourites was Dihimba, a secondary school located approximately 22 kilometres from the main road and 35 kilometres from any sizeable town. Dihimba is one of the largest villages in the Mtwara rural region and is an 'Ujamaa' village, one that was resettled under former president Nyerere's village-isation strategy.

In my three visits to this school, I was always greeted warmly by the teachers and staff. The pride of the teachers in their school is evident in the landscaping art that graces the front of the school, proclaiming 'Dihimba Secondary Day School' (it runs the entire length of the school!)

'Dihimba Secondary School' sewn in grass at the front of the school.

The school has passed our initial assessment phase and their application form has just arrived to our office by express post as I write this! If the final application meets all of SolarAid's macrosolar criteria we hope to be able to install a solar system on the school in the new year.

Fingers crossed and I'll keep you posted!

More soon,
Courtney

Beautiful and remote. Dihimba village in the Mtwara rural region.

The kikoi factory shop, Ifakara.

Last week I wrote about the women weavers of Ifakara. I thought I'd finish off by saying that although I do not have the exact information, I do believe the Ifakara kikoi is a self-sustaining enterprise. I would be curious to see if we can leverage the distribution network of organisations such as the kikoi cooperative to distribute our solar panels. If we can do this then we can keep the distribution cost relatively low, while providing additional income sources for women and under-privileged groups in remote areas. We can also gain lessons learned from an established social enterprise in rural Tanzania.

The kikoi factory is just one example of an existing non-traditional network into which we can tap to distribute solar products. There are many throughout Tanzania. The challenge is on how to recruit, organise and train them to be microsolar distributers.

My distribution strategy (to be completed in the next couple of months) will highlight strategies on how we can best reach these organisations and leverage existing distribution networks to bring solar power to Tanzania. I'm looking forward to presenting this strategy to the SolarAid team.