Millions of People Lack Electricity. Solar Appliances Can Help

Solar-powered appliances can bring vital services to communities that aren't connected to the grid, says CLASP's Martha Wakoli.

Sarah Wesseler

Cooling down on a scorching day, lighting the house at night, heating a pan to cook dinner: In wealthy countries, people take for granted the ability to meet their basic needs by switching on appliances. But in low-income nations, these appliances, along with the electricity needed to power them, are often out of reach.

As the planet warms, the lack of critical appliances has increasingly severe consequences, making it harder for people to thrive—and, in some cases, simply survive—in ever-harsher environments. Solar-powered appliances are a promising solution.

In this interview, Martha Wakoli, who works on CLASP’s clean energy access team in Nairobi, discusses their potential and how to reach it.

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Sarah Wesseler, CLASP managing editor: Let’s start with some basics about solar appliances. What are they? Why should people who are interested in sustainable development and climate change care about them?

Martha Wakoli: Well, in places like the States or Europe, if you need light, you switch on a light bulb. But in other parts of the world, millions of people don’t have that option—they’re not connected to the electric grid. So they’ve found creative solutions for accessing services like lighting, cooling, and cooking. And that’s where the idea of solar appliances developed.

For a long time, this technology was used for things like charging phones and lighting homes. But increasingly, we’re seeing the potential to power much larger, almost industrial-level processes with solar appliances. Say you’re a clothing manufacturer in a place that doesn’t have electricity: The machines you need could be powered by the sun.

There’s more and more research and investment in these kinds of appliances. That opens a whole new pathway of solutions for the millions of people who continue to live without electricity.

Wesseler: When you say these appliances are powered by the sun, how does that work? I’m thinking about the US, where I live: A lot of people have solar panels on their roofs, but they still use standard appliances plugged into standard wall outlets. How are solar appliances different?

Wakoli: Well, with solar appliances, the appliance is connected directly to a solar panel on your roof via a cable. And depending on how many panels you have and how large they are, you could have multiple cables powering multiple appliances at the same time. And for appliances that are used outdoors—water pumps, for example—the cables from the solar panel also run directly to the appliance.

IDE Global / Bimala Colavito

Solar irrigation in India


Wesseler: What if the sun’s not out? Can you still run solar appliances then?

Wakoli: Yes. Solar appliances come with a little bit of energy storage, typically in the form of a battery, that allows them to keep functioning when it’s not sunny. For example, solar refrigerators keep things cool even at night.

Wesseler: That all makes sense. But why not just connect more people to the electric grid? Why focus on solar appliances instead?

Wakoli: There are a lot of reasons, but the most important is that it’s typically much more expensive to extend the power grid to far-flung places than it is to provide solar appliances. Solar appliances are more cost-effective in rural areas.

Providing solar appliances is also faster than building out the grid, which takes a long time. This is important given the urgency of the climate disaster, which we’re observing in real time, whether it’s heatwaves in India or droughts in Zambia. People need appliances that can help them adapt to climate change now.

Monica Tiwari, SPI
Solar fan in Bihar, India
Efficiency for Access
Solar refrigerator in Uganda

Solar appliances can also help people build climate resilience and empower them to be more active participants in their own development. I’ll give you an example: In Mozambique, the government used taxpayer money to build an electric grid, but in 2023, Cyclone Freddie knocked it out. Compare that to decentralized systems, where people can have their own solar panels on their roofs or solar pumps on their farms. Because these appliances are modular, the scale of damage tends to be much smaller.

This kind of resilience is especially important for facilities like schools and hospitals. When floods or droughts make it impossible for them to operate where they are, there’s not much they can do if they rely on the electric grid. But with solar, they can move to a safer location and take their power source with them.

Another reason is that the grid itself is changing. Around the world, we’re preparing for what we’re calling the grid of the future. A lot of people now have electric vehicles, and in some areas, these vehicles can be plugged back into the wall, sending that power back to the grid, right? So you now have a complex bidirectional electric system that’s very different from what has existed for the last 70 years. Instead of having very few energy producers and many consumers, you have a growing number of what’s called “prosumers”: They produce the energy and they’re also consumers. This subset of people is growing everywhere.

Wesseler: You recently led research seeking to understand the number of people globally who need solar appliances. Why did you focus on this issue in particular?

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Wakoli: Well, in the development sector—so essentially, organizations that are trying to lift people out of poverty—if we cannot quantify a problem, it is difficult to know what interventions are needed in terms of money, regulations, and human capital. So providing information like this helps decision makers develop solutions.

And in this case, the problem we are looking at involves energy services to help marginalized people lift themselves out of poverty while also building resilience. This is important because, as we know, these groups are already being affected by climate change. So one goal of our work is to help the development and climate sectors understand that they’re working toward a common target.

This is particularly critical because, as we recently saw at COP29, there’s still a lot of resistance to the idea that the nations most responsible for climate change should fund other nations to protect themselves from it. But what the international community needs to understand is that that if we don’t mitigate climate disasters in the most vulnerable communities, the damage won’t just stay in those communities. Issues like climate-driven displacement and public health crises can easily spill over borders, making climate change an even more complex and expensive problem to solve. So I believe the international community should collaborate to address energy access challenges immediately to avoid this complication.

Wesseler: What did you learn from the research?

Wakoli: The key finding was that only about 2% of the need for key appliances is being met.

I think people in the international development and energy sectors intuitively knew that we are falling behind on providing universal electricity access, but there was still maybe not a good understanding of how far behind. With this research, we put a number to it: There are over 500 million people who need these appliances but don’t have them and won’t be able to afford them unless there are major changes in the appliance sector. That’s a massive gap.

CLASP

Solar mill in Nigeria


Wesseler: What would it take to close this gap?

Wakoli: Well, we need more investment at all levels of solar appliances. We need to invest in people who can support the sector: students, researchers, manufacturers, distributors, maintenance people. Companies need money to build these appliances, to test business models, to scale. We also need money for governments to conduct awareness campaigns. People need to go into communities to let them know about these appliances and demonstrate how they work.

We also need more cross-disciplinary dialogue. Lifting people out of poverty requires more than electricity or appliances; the solution has to involve people who work in agriculture, environmental advocacy, etc. A practical example is solar water pumps, which make it easier for farmers to generate income. But productivity is not only a function of water; farmers also need good seeds, fertilizer, and good soil. So people outside the energy sector need to be involved as well.

Ultimately, we need to build a market that can exist without external support. Think of Coca-Cola. Soda is the one thing that is ubiquitous in every place I have been, even where people don’t have high incomes. Coca-Cola has figured out how to reach the last mile in countries like Kenya and India. The solar appliance sector needs to get to the same place.

Developing a self-sustaining market for solar appliances will require collaboration across governments, the private sector, and development partners. Governments need to prioritize solar appliances and other energy-efficient solutions as part of their national electrification strategies, and the appliance sector needs to build muscle in distribution and consumer awareness. What’s more, all these actors need to prioritize ensuring that solar appliances support increased productivity, driving up incomes for communities living below the poverty line.

Many critical pieces of this puzzle are currently missing. Right now, a lot of the money in the solar appliance sector comes from European governments as part of their international aid programs. But if we’re thinking about a sustainable solution for more than 50 countries and more than half a billion people, it cannot be contingent on well-wishers alone.

 

Interview edited and condensed.

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