Small energy systems
In Ethiopia, only one percent of the population has access to electricity. Access to energy is a significant factor in lifting people out of poverty. But in Ethiopia, 80 percent of the population lives in villages, far from the country’s power grid. The solution for many rural, developing countries is small production units serving local demand, rather than large, centralized plants and grids.
This has been done in the village of Rema, 240 kilometres north of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. The country’s largest solar energy project is situated in this village. Since 2007 all the houses in the village have been equipped with solar panels by an international organisation. ”Now our children can do their homework in the evenings, because we have lights. They are very happy”, says Elfenesh Tefera . Rema also has its own school, the International Solar Energy School (ISES), that trains solar-panel engineers.
For the sake of everyone’s future it is important that developing countries go directly from no electricity to clean electricity. Our wealth is based on the coal of the industrial revolution and the fossil fuels of today. The need for clean energy should not come at the expense of growth in developing countries. It is therefore important that financial mechanisms are established through which wealthy countries subsidize the associated costs.
Read more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8150391.stm
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/09/off-grid-solar-for-madagascar