Devastated by a genocide in the early 1990s, Rwanda was until recently considered one of the poorest countries in sub-saharan Africa. Even though economic growth has been high for several years recently, a very large portion of the population is still desperately poor, with an average GDP per capita of USD 743 in 2017 and USD 845 in 2021. Electrification is speeding up, but a large majority of their population – up to 77% of households as of 2015 – are not served by the public utility companies, and suffer from serious electricity and poverty. On the other hand, Rwanda sits right on the equator, blessed with plenty of sunlight all year round - perfect for the exploitation of solar energy. The government is building large scale solar panel farms with multi-megawatt capacity. But it will still take many years to electrify the whole country. There is plenty of room for small scale solar power installations to fill in the gap. This is where groups like us can chip in - in terms of installing small scale systems and building up the capacity of the local community in the relevant skills.
Starting in 2015, PolyU partnered with a local NGO in Rwanda, African Evangelical Enterprise (AEE) Rwanda, in a four-year collaborative effort to electrify a semi-rural village in Rwanda with solar power. For impact and sustainability, we developed a three-tier capacity building model that combined efforts from university students (who provide the technical expertise), strengths and expertise of a local partner NGO (who had previously developed a community support infrastructure in the form of strong self-help groups), and community commitment and support (who provide the manpower initially and subsequently acquired the technical capacity).
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