Solar mini-grids, a big solution for clean electricity in rural Africa

For several years, the town of Sabon Gida relied on diesel generators or lamps, which often left its destitute population in the dark, like millions of other Africans.

“It was stressful holding flashlights,” Ms. Datau told AFP at her clinic in the north-central state of Nasarawa. “Even giving injections without electricity was difficult for us.”

But almost everything changed a year ago, thanks to a private-public initiative by the World Bank, the American mini-grid manufacturer Husk Power Systems and the Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria.

The health facility was connected to a solar mini-grid that provides almost half of the households in this farming community and most of its businesses with almost constant electricity.

Today, Sabon Gida sometimes has more light than Lagos, the country's economic capital, where many people get by on half a day's worth of electricity - sometimes much less - from a faulty grid.

Mini-grids, detached from national electricity distribution networks and usually supplying rural communities, are not new. But they have multiplied thanks to the falling costs of photovoltaic panels over the last decade.

And rural Africa is gradually emerging from the darkness.

Light "was previously only available to the rich, who used electric generators in their homes," said Dauda Yakubu, a traditional leader from Sabon Gida.

Nearly 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity, and in Nigeria alone the figure rises to 90 million, or around 40% of the continent's most populous country.

Tripling renewable energy, including solar energy, is one of the objectives deemed most achievable at COP28 in Dubai (November 30-December 12).

And far from being anecdotal, electric mini-grids are considered by the World Bank and the International Energy Agency (IEA) as a major solution to offer rural regions of sub-Saharan Africa access to electricity. electricity without using fossil fuels.

A viable solution?

In a report released this year, the World Bank said the use of solar mini-grids has increased from just 500 installations in 2010 to more than 3.000 today. It is estimated that 9.000 more will be put into service within a few years.

Yet solar development in Africa faces enormous challenges, including reassuring investors wary of its viability, inflationary pressures on equipment, better public financing and the establishment of clear policies to promote its use.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of providing electricity to 380 million people in Africa by 2030, 160.000 mini-grids are needed.

The current pace projects only 12.000 new networks by then, according to the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program.

"The government sees this model as the most effective way to rapidly increase access to electricity," said Abba Aliya of the Nigeria Rural Electrification Agency.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria's "market-driven" approach to solar mini-grids has already brought more than 100 projects into operation, while Ethiopia, Zambia and Kenya have adopted new regulations to attract private investment.

States often lack funds for large-scale projects, while small-scale projects are not viable for the private sector, said Abel Gaiya, a researcher at the Abuja-based think tank Clean Technology Hub.

"If you take mini-grids out of the equation, you are still faced with the problem of expanding national grids which are not available to a large number of communities. So mini-grids are essential," he said. he explains.

Electric motorcycles

Husk Power, which also works in other African countries and India, has twelve networks in Nigeria, and plans to install 60 more by the end of the year.

Not far from Sabon Gida, along an unpaved road, the village of Igbabo also joined the program two years ago. Around 350 households and businesses have access to the 172-panel Husk Power solar plant.

John Buhari still offers the same price in his phone charging business, but he now makes more profit because he no longer pays for fuel for his generator.

Per month, households pay an average of 2.500 naira for electricity, and businesses 10.000 naira.

Nearby, Husk Power is piloting electric motorcycles, as part of its integrated approach to providing rural electricity and equipment.

In Sabon Gida, no one could be happier about solar power than Shagari Abari, owner of a viewing lounge, where residents gather on concrete benches to watch soccer games and movies.

“Most of the time with my generator there are malfunctions and breakdowns during matches, and the crowd starts shouting at me,” he explains. “But with solar energy, it’s reliable and cheaper.”