1. Kelleh Gbawuru Mansaray
SOLAR LANTERN PROJECT IN RURAL SIERRA LEONE
UNIDO Solution Forum at GSSD Expo 2013
“Clean Tech for Green Industry”
Kelleh Gbawuru Mansaray
National Energy Consultant
UNIDO Sierra Leone
October 2013

2. Project Overview Project Objective:
The project was designed to use solar PV lanterns to provide basic lighting in rural areas of Sierra Leone where conventional methods of electrification cannot be economically justified.
Location: Kychom, Kambia District, Northern Sierra Leone
Sponsor: Government of India
Main Partner: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), India
Counterparts: Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Local Government

3. Project Overview
Rural electrification forms an integral part of Sierra Leone’s overall rural transformation and poverty reduction.
Less than 1% of the rural population has access to electricity.
The productivity and health of these people are reduced by dependence on traditional fuels and technologies, with women and children suffering most.
Therefore access to modern, clean energy should be treated as a fundamental right to everybody.

4. Project Overview Pre-Lantern Period in Kychom
Lighting Source: Crude kerosene lamps, candles and torch lights (dry cell batteries).
Eye irritation, coughing, nasal problems and fire hazards associated with the use of kerosene lamps.
A number of children reportedly fall ill of accidental kerosene poisoning every year.
The disposal of used dry cell batteries in open dumps or as litter is a common practice in Kychom.
Few individual families and businesses own small portable generators but are only used when fuel is available. 4

5. Project Overview Pre-Lantern Period in Kychom
Street vendors using hazardous kerosene lamps
Food poisoning 5

6. Project Overview
Over the recent years, there has been significant interest from the government, donors as well as several sectors in Sierra Leone to provide reliable, modern and cost effective electricity services to the rural communities
Thus, encouraging and facilitating economic development and general improvement to the living standards of the people.
Viable alternatives
Solar photovoltaic (PV) seems to be a technically and economically attractive option
A conclusion reached after Sierra Leone’s first multi-stakeholder solar energy forum organized by the Ministry of Energy (April 2010).
UNIDO Sierra Leone, with its vision to work for national sustainable development, undertook this initiative of implementing a solar PV charging project in Kychom.

7. Solar Lantern Charging Stations
Six (6) solar lantern charging stations setup at different locations in Kychom.
Components of each station:
50 portable solar lanterns. Each lantern uses LED-based luminaire and plastic enclosure that contains a rechargeable battery and necessary electronics.
5 junction boxes housing charge controllers. Each junction box has 10 sockets to plug-in the leads for individual solar lantern.
5 80 W Solar panels each connected to a separate junction box.

8. Solar Lantern Charging Stations
Fully charged lanterns
Kychom Chief turning on the lanterns

9. Solar mobile phone charging system
Setup in the Kychom community centre.
Operated and managed by a group of individuals who charge phones for a fee and also charge a small amount of money for receiving and making calls from their telephones.
Depending on use, a mobile phone user charges a phone as often as twice a week.
There are about 2 mobile phone users per household in Kychom.
Mobile Phone Charging
Kychom Chief Charging his Mobile Phone 9 9

10. Training of Trainers
Training of Four Sierra Leonean Technicians and Engineers at the TERI Complex in India. 10

11. Training of Trainers Site visit to a solar charging station in India.11

12. Training of Local Technicians
Sierra Leoneans trained in India training Kychom residents to undertake servicing of the solar PV systems and lanterns.
Lantern Assemble & Repairs
Solar PV Installation Training

13. Training of Local Technicians
Setting up of solar lantern stations by locally trained technicians

14. Project Commissioning

15. Project Impacts Education
Motivation of teachers and students of Kychom schools
Beneficial effects of increased attendance rates, improved academic performance and the development of adult functional literacy activities.
Success rate of students in the national public examinations has increased from 0% to 60% and enrollment doubled in the last year.
Night Classes

16. Project Impacts
Education
Night Classes Outside a Teacher’s House

17. Job creation
A full-time workforce of three operation and maintenance technicians and one security agent have been hired at each charging station and paid directly by the Kychom Energy Committee.
The committee comprises of seven (7) members who are also on payroll.
The extension of business hours due to the introduction of modern lighting has contributed immensely to the reduction of the unemployment rate.

18. Small & Medium Enterprises
The use of solar lights instead of kerosene-powered lamps reduces the risk of food contamination, respiratory and eye defect problems.
Extended business hours beyond 6:00 PM, the standard closing time for the pre-lantern period
Transformed barely viable enterprises into more sustainable, income-generating ones.
Increase in total sales and more profitable turn over.
Retail Business
Carpentry Workshop

19. Health
The only health clinic in Kychom relied on kerosene lanterns, torchlights and, occasionally, generators for their lighting needs before UNIDO’s intervention.
Purchasing of dry cell batteries and the supply of fuel to the clinic created logistical difficulties.
Women in labour now have clean light to have safe child delivery at any time
Less illnesses and accidents related to the usage of hazardous light sources.
Qualified health staff are maintained with solar lnaterns in the clinic.

20. Religion
Night prayers at the Kychom central mosque.

21. Gender and Poverty Reduction
The initiative is aligned with one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDG 3 - Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women) and also the Sierra Leone Government's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP 3 - Agenda for Prosperity)
This shows that the project has positively impacted global, regional and national indicators in accelerating women's economic and educational status by moving them from the informal to the formal sector in economies.
It has been shown that prosperous countries are those that have utilized the full potential of their population.
The project's innovative approach of involving women and youth is a clear blue print for sustainable economic development in the region. 21

22. Sustainability
Training of local technicians is essential for developing local technical support, which can help make the project sustainable.
Generated income from lantern rental and mobile phone charging is used to pay salaries of employees and maintain the systems.
One positive aspect is the willingness to pay on the part of the customers, as there is 0% defaulter rate. This is a positive signal for a budding business.

23. Innovation
The project innovation is unique in the sense that Kychom had never had an affordable and easily accessible household solar energy/light.
Traditionally, only residents of the capital city and the three regional headquarters have access to national electricity.
This innovation has positively influenced the status quo by bringing clean electricity to a deprived rural poor community.
The innovation contributes to rural women's economic empowerment in particular, within a highly patriarchal society.
For women to be fully involved in all aspects of the project implementation is extremely encouraging not only for women's access to energy, but also for the promotion of women's economic status and gender equality.

24. Replicability and scaling up
The initiative will be rolled out to all rural areas in Sierra Leone, so that remote areas likely to be off the national grid will have access to affordable and sustainable energy.
The government has realised the potential of the initiative and intends to mainstream it in its plans:
Government will investigate opportunities to use off-grid solar power services, and promote the creation of markets for solar technologies through the private sector.
Government's recognition of the importance of the private sector in the provision of electricity is a big leap in the fight to bring clean and affordable energy to the rural communities.

25. Success Factors Financially self-sustaining project.
Income generated helps community development projects, and maintains the system.
In addition to increasing income generation opportunities, the project seeks to complement priority government programmes in education, health and sanitation in rural Sierra Leone.
Local capacities to manage, operate and maintain the project.
Active community participation with strong sense of community ownership. 25

26. Conclusions
The Governent of India-UNIDO funded biomass gasifier project is an example of technological applications that take into account social and economic needs as well as environmental concerns.
The technological development is directly geared at providing energy, comfort and a better working environment to Sierra Leone’s remote rural population.
One solution for getting clean electricity to the millions of people in rural Sierra Leone who currently don't have grid power (or any power...) is to use some decentralized option such as solar PV technology.
Lantern shortage
About 600 Kychom inhabitants competing for 300 lanterns.