The Power of the Sun: Solar Lanterns Transform Lives in Malawi, Africa

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=52394

Mirriam is 18 years old and lives in Malawi. She has two children, one brother and one sister. Her father died of AIDS and her mother is now also sick with HIV AIDS. Every day is a struggle: finding food for her children, caring for her mother, looking after her other sick relatives – all this with next to no income.

Yet she's now found hope in a ground-breaking project carried out by non-profit SolarAid with funding another non-profit, TRAID. SolarAid is training young Malawians to become solar entrepreneurs so that they can build and sell small solar products such as solar lanterns and solar chargers for mobile phones and radios. The project is aiming particularly at young people affected by HIV/AIDS in order to provide them with more income.

The average African household uses 55 or so liters of kerosene per year, at an approximate cost of £80 . This contributes to health problems as the burning of kerosene inside houses is a major cause of respiratory illness, fires, burns, accidental poisonings, eyesight problems and death in the developing world. Kerosene is far more expensive and far less efficient than electric lighting: the cost of useful light energy ($/lumen hour of light) for kerosene is 325 times higher than the inefficient incandescent bulb and 1,625 times higher than compact fluorescent light bulbs.

In rural areas, the high cost of kerosene can consume much of a family's income. One lamp consumes 0.07 liters per hour with daily usage of around two hours burn time, amounting to around 4 liters per month. In the developing world, a family's lighting costs, because of kerosene fuel costs, are equal to those of a family in the developed world. Even with government subsidies, kerosene requires 10% to 25% of a villager's annual income.

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