[Africa] Report: Lighting Africa - Solar Lighting for the Base of the Pyramid - Overview of an Emerging Market
October, 2010
Authors: This report presents an overview of current and projected market trends for off-grid lighting. It was commissioned and coordinated by Lighting Africa, a joint initiative from IFC and the World Bank and prepared by Dalberg Global Development Advisors (www.dalberg.com)
Website: lightingafrica.org
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Lighting Africa
Lighting Africa, a joint IFC and World Bank program, seeks to accelerate the development of commercial off-grid lighting markets in Sub-Saharan Africa as part of the World Bank Group’s wider efforts to improve access to energy. Lighting Africa is helping mobilize the private sector to build sustainable markets to provide 2.5 million people with safe, affordable, and modern off-grid lighting by 2012. The longer-term goal is to eliminate market barriers for the private sector to reach 250 million people in Africa without electricity, and using fuel based lighting, by 2030. Improved lighting provides significant socio-economic, health and environmental benefits such as new income generation opportunities for small businesses. Lighting Africa is a key element of the global Solar and LED Energy Access (SLED) program, an initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial.
For more information, please visit lightingafrica.org
Purpose of this Report
A key component of the Lighting Africa landscape is the market for solar portable lights, which covers a range of lighting needs from individual tasks to general household lighting. This report presents a snapshot of this market and provides industry-level data and analysis on key trends. Excerpts from this report were used to establish a common foundation for the discussions at the Lighting Africa conference on May 18-20, 2010, and the full document is designed to be a reference point for future fact-based analysis of the market opportunities for off-grid lighting.
It should be noted that Lighting Africa is technology-neutral, but has assembled this report with a focus on solar-based lighting products, as this is a dominant and fast-growing sector of the off-grid market deserving lighting industry, donor, and private sector investor attention. The report relies on the input of a broad range of industry experts, manufacturers, distributors, and NGOs, including interviews with over 70 solar market players in 10 African markets and a dozen lighting product manufacturers worldwide. It will be updated every two years. We welcome your feedback and support in this effort and encourage you to reach out to the Lighting Africa team with your questions and feedback.
Scope
Off-grid lighting is a dynamic and growing market with a spectrum of products and business models. For the purposes of this report, we have chosen to focus on an important cross-section of the market that we term “solar portable lights” (SPL) – this market has been referred to as “pico-solar” in some reports or, more generically, “solar lanterns” in earlier industry and development agency literature. We define the SPL market on the basis of function, technology and quality. Hence the scope of this report is defined within the following factors:
Function - Solar-powered lighting systems that range from the task specific (torches/flashlights) to the general ambient lighting functions of solar lanterns. These products can include added functions such as mobile phone charging, but light has to be the primary design driver. The functionality also has to allow easy portability and therefore is distinct from the solar home system market.
Technology - The light – typically LED-based, though many products still feature CFL bulbs – has to be rechargeable and must be powered by a solar cell (although not necessarily exclusively), that is integrated or is a stand-alone panel. Devices with non-solar charging functionality are included in the study, for instance lanterns that can be recharged from the grid or a car battery, but a solar panel also has to be part of the package. Given the portability factor, the solar panel size is restricted to 10 watts and below. Dynamo (e.g., hand crank) technology is also an option worth considering, however its use at present is limited and we have chosen to restrict the report to solar devices.
Quality - Recognizing the emerging issue of market spoilage from poor quality products, our analysis excludes ultra-cheap (typically battery-powered, nonsolar) LED torches/flashlights ($1-10), which have experienced substantial sales over the past few years in Africa. The focus of this report is on products that meet basic quality standards (e.g., sufficiently long life and light intensity) to meet the needs of Africa’s un-electrified households.1
The above criteria represent a robust space of quality solar products that are a market-ready opportunity for meeting the lighting needs of today’s off-grid rural and urban consumers. These products have momentum and are reaching a tipping point in a number of African markets which justifies focused study and effort in commercializing their use.
Complete paper with photo illustrations and graphs: bit.ly
See also, courtesy of Charles Brown, the following, related article:
Excess base station energy to power homes and phones
GSMA launches new initiative for emerging nations, plus green network benchmarks
By CAROLINE GABRIEL | 7 November, 2010
rethink-wireless.com
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