{"id":176,"date":"2014-08-07T21:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T21:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sussexnrggrp.wordpress.com\/?p=176"},"modified":"2015-06-09T11:01:35","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T11:01:35","slug":"electricity-for-all-new-research-assesses-the-successes-and-failures-of-community-based-micro-grids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/sussexenergygroup\/2014\/08\/07\/electricity-for-all-new-research-assesses-the-successes-and-failures-of-community-based-micro-grids\/","title":{"rendered":"Electricity for all? New research assesses the successes and failures of community-based micro grids"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this post Lorenz Gollwitzer<\/a>, Research Student at SPRU<\/a>,\u00a0discusses with us his recently published paper<\/a> that introduces a new methodological and theoretical foundation for studying the reasons for successes and failures of community-based micro grids<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"microgrid1_Lorenz-Gollwitze\"<\/a>I am\u00a0standing in Olosho-Oibor<\/a>, a small village three-hours from Nairobi, at the bottom of the Ngong Hills<\/a>(famous as the place where Denys Finch Hatton crashed his plane and died in\u00a0Karen Blixen\u2019s\u00a0autobiography\u00a0Out of Africa). Beeping in my pocket, my smartphone\u00a0has just received an email, yet the nearest connection to the national grid is about 15km, or a\u00a0three to four\u00a0hour walk away. The contrast between\u00a0my rural surroundings and the wireless 21st<\/sup> century couldn\u2019t be starker. But unlike many people –\u00a0not only in Kenya, but\u00a0in large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa –\u00a0the villagers of Olosho-Oibor do not\u00a0need to make that long walk to charge their phones or LED lanterns, thanks to a solar-wind hybrid micro grid they have been successfully operating since 2009.<\/p>\n

Rates of electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to be extremely low, even compared to other developing regions. The International Energy Agency (IEA)\u00a0estimated in 2011<\/a> that just under half of the total global population lacking access to electricity lives in Sub-Saharan Africa, amounting to almost 600 million people. The situation in Kenya is not atypical for many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Electrification rates in rural areas are estimated to be between 5-10% and the national grid operated by the public utility Kenya Power is already operating beyond capacity, causing rolling blackouts<\/a> as well as in some cases nationwide blackouts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read Lorenz’s full blog post here<\/a> or download the full working paper<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\nFollow Sussex Energy Group \"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this post Lorenz Gollwitzer, Research Student at SPRU,\u00a0discusses with us his recently published paper that introduces a new methodological and theoretical foundation for studying the reasons for successes and failures of community-based micro grids. I am\u00a0standing in Olosho-Oibor, a…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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