Inexpensive Solar Devices Help Accelerate Development in Kenya

Investment in solar power continues to accelerate. Significant factors include government mandates and incentives, lower costs and battery systems that can store solar energy for later use.

It’s understandable most attention to solar is at the utility level. But smaller solar deployments are having as large an impact, especially in low-income countries.

An example of how solar power simply “makes sense” at the community level can be seen in agricultural projects in Kenya run by international development organization World Neighbors.  The NGO and its local partners are helping family farmers install and use inexpensive solar powered equipment, including:

Mobile solar water pump 

This is a pump used for surface irrigation. A standard version uses two 80-watt solar panels that power two electric pumps. Easily transportable, it pumps water to irrigate vegetables for home consumption and local sale. It can be used where reliable electricity is an issue.   And since the free energy lowers input costs, it increases profits and incomes.

During the rainy season, it can also be used to boost a home solar system.

Solar incubators  

Eighty-watt solar panels and an 100 amp-hour battery are used to run these incubators, which are critical for family poultry farmers who need a reliable supply of chicks.  Importantly, they run during power black outs, which can be devastating for farm families that rely on standard power sources.

Solar vegetable drier 

During the rainy season, various types of vegetables flood the market and the price drops, reducing incomes. Farmers use solar driers to increase the shelf life of vegetables, which can be sold during times when prices are normal. Farmers also use the driers during times of drought, increasing food security and the ability to sell their produce when it is needed, and prices are higher. Solar driers are an inexpensive and easy way to increase returns on agricultural production.

CooKit  

CooKit is a solar powered cooking device. It drastically reduces fuel wood consumption and, with it, deforestation and air pollution. In addition, the device is used to pasteurize household drinking water—critical during times of drought.