UK: November 1, 2007
LONDON - A surge in investment in solar power is bringing down costs of the
alternative energy source, but affordability problems still dog hopes for
the 1.6 billion people worldwide without electricity.
The sun supplies only a tiny fraction -- less than one tenth of 1 percent --
of mankind's energy needs. But its supporters believe a solar era may be
dawning, boosted by western funding to combat oil "addiction" and climate
change.
Governments from Japan to Germany and the United States are helping the
public wean themselves off fossil fuels.
An average German household, for example, can earn over 2,000 euros
(US$2,860) a year from subsidies to install solar panels -- double their
electricity bill -- and pay off all costs within 10 years and earn a pure
profit for a further 10.
But there are few handouts in developing nations where it could be argued
solar power is more relevant -- in sunnier countries where many people have
no electricity at all.
A scientific body which groups academies worldwide -- the InterAcademy
Council -- said last week efforts to curb climate change must target vast
numbers of people who lack basic energy.
"It's sad that 1.6 billion people live without electricity and two to three
billion use energy in a primitive way very damaging to health," said
Professor Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist based at the University of
California, Berkeley, and co-chair of the report for the Dutch-based body.
LOW INCOME
Low incomes and low subsidies, if any, can make clean energy a hard sell in
developing countries.
In the Indian state of Karnataka private firms, backed by state government
subsidies, have over the last 3-5 years been pushing solar power for
households in towns and cities, including giving discounts on power bills if
solar is installed.
The picture is very different for off-grid rural Indian communities which
until now were dependent on kerosene, or paraffin, lamps for lighting,
having no electricity access.
"Kerosene is quite heavily subsidised but has limited availability in some
rural areas, which has helped solar PV (photovoltaic) sales," said J.P.
Painuly, senior energy planner at the Denmark-based Risoe National
Laboratory.
"There are some solar PV programmes that provide an extremely limited
capital subsidy. It's not at a scale that makes it viable. Solar PV is still
really expensive... more expensive than kerosene."
Worldwide about 1.5 million people die annually from indoor pollution due to
lighting and cooking.
It is the health benefits that sell the more expensive panels together with
the promise of a much brighter source of light than paraffin lamps so users
can work and make money after dark, or read and educate themselves or their
children.
The Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) has supplied solar powered
electricity to 75,000 households over the past 12 years in India, where 60
percent of households lack electricity.
Their standard solar panel, replacing three smoky paraffin lamps, costs
US$250, equal to at least 12 months' income for many rural households, said
SELCO Managing Director Harish Hande.
Customers can spread the cost over five years, and microfinance creditors
collect payments as often as weekly from those who struggle to put money
aside.
One downside is that large parts of Karnataka get monsoon rains for about 4
months a year and people complain that solar systems are not effective in
cloudy conditions.
Another is that SELCO's small profits are making it difficult for the
company to compete with salaries offered by Bangalore's Internet industry
and expand outside its core Karnataka state, said Hande.
Many wealthier suburbs in Karnataka cities and towns have terraces of houses
with solar water heaters -- a more basic and widely available technology
which heats water but doesn't supply electricity, unlike the solar PV
panels.
MANUFACTURING BOOM
SELCO cuts costs by making fluorescent light bulbs and designing solar
panels itself, but the panels are still more expensive than the more heavily
subsidised oil lamps.
So when will costs come down?
Rapidly developing countries like China are joining a silicon solar cell
manufacturing boom, helping to pare the price of the alternative technology
and simple, economy panels could soon be affordable even to the rural poor,
said Chu.
"Very inexpensive solar cells could be used by off-grid people to charge
appliances that don't use a lot of power but make a world of difference," he
said, listing life-enhancing items such as radios, mobile phones, water
purifiers and bright, efficient lamps called light emitting diodes (LEDs).
The World Bank last month announced a private sector competition to devise
the best-value, low carbon light source for poor households in Africa, as a
way to flag up what it estimates is a US$17 billion African market in
off-grid lighting.
UK-based solar company G24 Innovations this month started production of a
low-cost, non silicon-based solar panel, which it says it will supply into
the LED market in developing countries from next year.
-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/
(Additional reporting by Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin and YP Rajesh in New
Delhi)
Story by Gerard Wynn
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
