Electrification of rural areas by solar PV

Derek Lovejoy

Natural Resources Forum, 1992, vol. 16, issue 2, 102-110

Abstract: More than 2000 million people, mostly in developing countries, live in rural areas without access to grid connected power. Conventional approaches to supplying power, whether through extension of existing grids or through stand‐alone ‘minigrids’ based on diesel generator sets, or even on renewable energy minigrids, require large investments which are unlikely to receive priority in competition with more economically and politically attractive investments in urban areas. Domestic PV lighting and broadcast reception kits (DLKs), comprising, typically, a 30–60 W panel, an automotive battery, a charge indicator, and dc fluorescent lamps can be furnished and installed for about $500. DLKs are now used in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, Sri Lanka and many other countries. DLKs provide a minimum essential service with low overheads. Given the necessary credit facilities, they can give better service at comparable costs in comparison with kerosene lamps and dry cell powered radios. They also permit a substantial degree of local manufacture, thus saving on foreign exchange. This movement is starting in many countries on a purely commercial basis. The process could be greatly accelerated if ‘seed money’ in the form of revolving funds could be made available.

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.1992.tb00555.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:natres:v:16:y:1992:i:2:p:102-110

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Natural Resources Forum from Blackwell Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().