SLS-8d3b - The Community-based Charging Station Model

After the successful installation of solar panels in 44 households in 2015, discussions with our NGO partner - AEE Rwanda - and community members on the experience resulted in a number of observations:  (1) Due to the low consumption of the electrical devices, it was not necessary to charge the battery every day, hence the solar panels were not fully utilised;  (2) The households with the solar panels were uncomfortable when so many of their neighbours could not benefit; (3) AEE Rwanda felt confident of supporting a larger scale implementation.  

Based on these observations, we realised that our design had worked as expected, but the need was impossibly great, and indeed there were plenty of room for improvement on the design.  We then came up with a modified Community-based Model, building on not only the communal, sharing culture common in the rural communities, but also encouraged through the self-help group model very successfully promoted by AEE Rwanda. AEE helped us identify households “of reputation” in the community, who would act as “hosts” for solar “charging stations”. A set of 12 solar panels (240W) would be installed permanently on the roof of the host’s house - the villagers felt they are safe enough up there on the roof.  Subsequent experience had proved them right.  Putting them up on the high roof is challenging but doable - given their dexterity and experience working on the roof.   And we had not lost even one single panel to thieves in 5 years.  

The panels on the roof are connected to 6 individual 20A PMW controllers inside the house. The host would designate one room that would be wired up as a charging room, where community members could plug in their batteries to be charged.  The host would be responsible for maintaining the security of the system and making it available for the community. In return, the host’s home would be wired and connected directly to the solar panel system, thus ensuring a constant supply of electricity.  The other households would need to carry their batteries to the host for charging.  Most of them live within 20 minutes on foot from one of the charging stations.  A battery can be fully charged in about half a day, and the charge can be used to power a house for about one week.  These infrequent, relatively short trips (for them) were considered an acceptable price for access to electricity, and spreading the benefits over a much wider group of fellow villagers. 

The immediate benefit of this new design was quite a sizeable increase in the number of households that could be served by the project, without having to make a huge increase in budget and team size. Since the cost (purchase and transportation) of the small electrical appliances and wiring were much smaller compared with the solar panels and controllers, this allowed the project to benefit many more households, with only an incremental increase in cost. We can now realistically aim to cover whole villages with hundreds of households.  We are also able to bring in more manpower by involving the local people more in the project.