SOLAR LANTERN PROJECT IN RURAL
SIERRA LEONE
UNIDO Solution Forum at GSSD Expo 2013
“Clean Tech for Green Industry”
Kelleh Gbawuru Mansaray
National Energy Consultant
UNIDO Sierra Leone
October 2013
Project Overview
• Project Objective:
– The project was designed to use solar PV lanterns to provide basic
lighting in rural areas of Sierra Leone where conventional methods of
electrification cannot be economically justified.
• Location: Kychom, Kambia District, Northern Sierra Leone
• Sponsor: Government of India
• Main Partner: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), India
• Counterparts: Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Energy, Ministry
of Local Government
Project Overview
• Rural electrification forms an integral part of Sierra Leone’s
overall rural transformation and poverty reduction.
• Less than 1% of the rural population has access to electricity.
• The productivity and health of these people are reduced by
dependence on traditional fuels and technologies, with
women and children suffering most.
– Therefore access to modern, clean energy should be treated as a
fundamental right to everybody.
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Project Overview
• Pre-Lantern Period in Kychom
– Lighting Source: Crude kerosene lamps, candles and
torch lights (dry cell batteries).
– Eye irritation, coughing, nasal problems and fire
hazards associated with the use of kerosene lamps.
– A number of children reportedly fall ill of accidental
kerosene poisoning every year.
– The disposal of used dry cell batteries in open dumps or
as litter is a common practice in Kychom.
– Few individual families and businesses own small
portable generators but are only used when fuel is
available.
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Project Overview
• Pre-Lantern Period in Kychom
– Street vendors using hazardous kerosene lamps
– Food poisoning
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Project Overview
• Over the recent years, there has been significant interest from
the government, donors as well as several sectors in Sierra
Leone to provide reliable, modern and cost effective
electricity services to the rural communities
– Thus, encouraging and facilitating economic development and general
improvement to the living standards of the people.
• Viable alternatives
– Solar photovoltaic (PV) seems to be a technically and economically
attractive option
• A conclusion reached after Sierra Leone’s first multi-stakeholder solar energy forum
organized by the Ministry of Energy (April 2010).
• UNIDO Sierra Leone, with its vision to work for national
sustainable development, undertook this initiative of
implementing a solar PV charging project in Kychom.
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Solar Lantern Charging Stations
• Six (6) solar lantern charging stations setup at different locations in Kychom.
• Components of each station:
– 50 portable solar lanterns. Each lantern
uses LED-based luminaire and plastic
enclosure that contains a rechargeable
battery and necessary electronics.
– 5 junction boxes housing charge
controllers. Each junction box has 10
sockets to plug-in the leads for individual
solar lantern.
– 5 80 W Solar panels each connected to a
separate junction box.
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Solar Lantern Charging Stations
• Fully charged lanterns
– Kychom Chief turning on the lanterns
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Solar mobile phone charging system
• Setup in the Kychom community centre.
– Operated and managed by a group of individuals who charge phones for a fee and
also charge a small amount of money for receiving and making calls from their
telephones.
– Depending on use, a mobile phone user charges a phone as often as twice a week.
– There are about 2 mobile phone users per household in Kychom.
Mobile Phone Charging
Kychom Chief Charging his Mobile Phone
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Training of Trainers
Training of Four Sierra Leonean Technicians and Engineers at the TERI Complex in India.
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Training of Trainers
• Site visit to a solar charging station in India.
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Training of Local Technicians
• Sierra Leoneans trained in India training Kychom residents to undertake
servicing of the solar PV systems and lanterns.
Lantern Assemble & Repairs
Solar PV Installation Training
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Training of Local Technicians
• Setting up of solar lantern stations by locally trained technicians
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Project Commissioning
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Project Impacts
• Education
– Motivation of teachers and students of Kychom schools
• Beneficial effects of increased attendance rates, improved academic performance and
the development of adult functional literacy activities.
– Success rate of students in the national public examinations has increased
from 0% to 60% and enrollment doubled in the last year.
Night Classes
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Project Impacts
• Education
– Night Classes Outside a Teacher’s House
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• Job creation
– A full-time workforce of three operation and maintenance technicians
and one security agent have been hired at each charging station and
paid directly by the Kychom Energy Committee.
– The committee comprises of seven (7) members who are also on
payroll.
– The extension of business hours due to the introduction of modern
lighting has contributed immensely to the reduction of the
unemployment rate.
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• Small & Medium Enterprises
– The use of solar lights instead of kerosene-powered lamps reduces the
risk of food contamination, respiratory and eye defect problems.
– Extended business hours beyond 6:00 PM, the standard closing time for
the pre-lantern period
• Transformed barely viable enterprises into more sustainable, incomegenerating ones.
• Increase in total sales and more profitable turn over.
Retail Business
Carpentry Workshop
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• Health
– The only health clinic in Kychom relied on kerosene lanterns, torchlights
and, occasionally, generators for their lighting needs before UNIDO’s
intervention.
– Purchasing of dry cell batteries and the supply of fuel to the clinic created
logistical difficulties.
– Women in labour now have clean light to have safe child delivery at any
time
– Less illnesses and accidents related to the usage of hazardous light sources.
– Qualified health staff are maintained with solar lnaterns in the clinic.
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• Religion
– Night prayers at the Kychom central mosque.
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
Gender and Poverty Reduction

The initiative is aligned with one of the UN's Millennium Development
Goals (MDG 3 - Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women) and also
the Sierra Leone Government's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP 3 Agenda for Prosperity) 2013 - 2018.
 This shows that the project has positively impacted global, regional and
national indicators in accelerating women's economic and educational status
by moving them from the informal to the formal sector in economies.

It has been shown that prosperous countries are those that have utilized
the full potential of their population.
 The project's innovative approach of involving women and youth is a clear
blue print for sustainable economic development in the region.
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Sustainability

Training of local technicians is essential for developing local
technical support, which can help make the project
sustainable.

Generated income from lantern rental and mobile phone
charging is used to pay salaries of employees and maintain
the systems.
 One positive aspect is the willingness to pay on the part of the
customers, as there is 0% defaulter rate. This is a positive signal for a
budding business.
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Innovation
•
•
•
•
The project innovation is unique in the sense that Kychom had
never had an affordable and easily accessible household solar
energy/light.
Traditionally, only residents of the capital city and the three
regional headquarters have access to national electricity.
This innovation has positively influenced the status quo by
bringing clean electricity to a deprived rural poor community.
The innovation contributes to rural women's economic
empowerment in particular, within a highly patriarchal society.
 For women to be fully involved in all aspects of the project
implementation is extremely encouraging not only for women's access to
energy, but also for the promotion of women's economic status and
gender equality.
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Replicability and scaling up
•
The initiative will be rolled out to all rural areas in Sierra
Leone, so that remote areas likely to be off the national grid
will have access to affordable and sustainable energy.
•
The government has realised the potential of the initiative
and intends to mainstream it in its plans:
◦ Government will investigate opportunities to use off-grid solar power
services, and promote the creation of markets for solar technologies
through the private sector.
◦ Government's recognition of the importance of the private sector in the
provision of electricity is a big leap in the fight to bring clean and
affordable energy to the rural communities.
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Success Factors

Financially self-sustaining project.

Income generated helps community development projects, and maintains
the system.

In addition to increasing income generation opportunities, the project
seeks to complement priority government programmes in education,
health and sanitation in rural Sierra Leone.

Local capacities to manage, operate and maintain the project.

Active community participation with strong sense of community
ownership.
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Conclusions
• The Governent of India-UNIDO funded biomass gasifier project is an
example of technological applications that take into account social and
economic needs as well as environmental concerns.
• The technological development is directly geared at providing energy,
comfort and a better working environment to Sierra Leone’s remote rural
population.
• One solution for getting clean electricity to the millions of people in rural
Sierra Leone who currently don't have grid power (or any power...) is to
use some decentralized option such as solar PV technology.
• Lantern shortage
– About 600 Kychom inhabitants competing for 300 lanterns.
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