Post date: Oct 11, 2013 10:16:56 PM
Non-profit groups aiming to replace Africa's deadly kerosene lamps with safe, solar alternatives say their campaign is gaining momentum. The award-winning Solaraid project says the dangerous lamps could be eliminated from the continent by 2020.
NEAR MWANZA, GEITA REGION, TANZANIA (ASHDEN) - International charity Solaraid is hoping to consign Africa's ubiquitous but dangerous kerosene lamps to history, by providing high-quality, robust solar-powered alternatives to poor rural households across the continent.
The charity wants to eliminate the lamps by 2020 and hopes to inspire a revolution in home-based microtechnology.
Through the charity's social enterprise, SunnyMoney, solar powered lights are sold, rather than given away for free, in an attempt to create a sustainable market.
Pippa Palmer, Solaraid's managing director, say that after the initial purchase for 10 US dollars, the lamps cost nothing to run and will last for up to five years, ensuring savings of 98 percent against kerosene use.
"These lights use the very best of PV technology, battery technology, and LED technology, and they're pulled together in one contained unit, and the really amazing thing is that they're made to immensely robust standards. We can throw them around, you can do all sorts of things with them. No moving parts. They don't trap moisture," said Palmer.
"They will last for up to five years and during that lifetime they will pay for themselves over and over. Once they're bought they just throw out free light four hours a night, and it frees up the income from kerosene that would normally go on to kerosene, which we have found through our research goes on to better nutrition, on to education and on to farming inputs," she said.
Solaraid says that 598 million off-grid Africans have no access to electricity and that this figure could rise to 700 million within a decade. The group has been providing lamps in Tanzania, Kenya,Malawi, and Zambia, where many rely on toxic and highly flammable kerosene for lighting.
Buying kerosene for lighting can consume up to a fifth of a household's income. In addition, the fuel is extremely hazardous. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that inhaling kerosene fumes daily is as dangerous as smoking two packets of cigarettes per day.
Kerosene also poses a serious fire risk. When spilled and ignited it can quickly engulf a dwelling with flames.
According to Palmer, "the real danger is that these lamps, as the kerosene burns, the unburnt matter turns to a very fine particulate, a very fine soot, and that soot gets deep into the lungs and it's a major cause of respiratory illness. That soot also escapes. It's called black carbon and it actually escapes; 79 percent of the burn escapes into the house and 89 percent of that goes into the atmosphere and has an instant global warming effect, so the effect on the environment is quite catastrophic."
All income generated by the sale of the lights is invested back into the charity's works. Palmer says that for consumers, solar lights will pay for themselves after 12 weeks.
She says the charity want the lamps to provide "a gateway to microtechnology" to transform poor areas of Africa.
"The grid won't come for these people. It's too expensive and it won't reach them. We see light as a gateway to technology, to microtechnology that will change their lives. This is the first product that they will buy into, but we see a proliferation of this technology into small electronics, televisions, radios, solar fridges, solar cooking, and other, solar laptops for example," she said.
Having sold 500,000 solar lights in their first three years of operation, servicing around 2.5 million Africans, Solaraid was named one of 2013's winners of the prestigious environmental Ashden Awards.