July 2021

Persistent Energy: Learnings from a Decade of Investing in Energy Access in Africa

This an excellent article – which can be found here – from Persistent Energy on lessons learnt from a decade of investing in solar home system companies, principally using PAYGO technology. Key points are to keep operating costs as less than 25% to 35% of cash revenues, and serving low density rural customers profitably has proven much more difficult than expected.

June 2021

July – December 2020 Global Off-Grid Solar Market Report

GOGLA have published their market report for the last six months of 2020, available here Global Off-Grid Solar Market Report | GOGLA

The key points from the report are

• Following years of declining prices, component shortages and higher freight costs have resulted in high costs to distributors. This is expected to continue for at least six months.
• The global pandemic impacted many companies. With the pandemic and higher costs global sales at 3.6 million units were down 18% on the second half of 2019 (pre pandemic) but up 19% on the first half of 2020.
• PAYGO sales rose to 33% of all unit sales. In the Solar Home Systems category, 89% were sold via PAYGO.
• In Madagascar sales were nearly double the same period last year, which is partly attributed to the results-based financing scheme; a similar scheme to the one OGEF recently launched in Haiti.

March 2021

Power for All’s 2021 top trends for energy access

This is an excellent summary of the state of the industry with all its complexity can be found here.

January 2021

Article: Haiti is breaking down renewable energy barriers and developers should take note

In this article, originally published on renewableenergyworld.com, co-authors Dr. Evenson Calixte, General Manager of Haiti’s National Energy Regulatory Authority and Nicolas D. Allien, Acting Head of the Energy Cell at Haiti’s Ministry of Public Works discuss important changes to Haiti’s regulatory framework that make renewable energy investments in Haiti attractive, particularly in mini-grids.

January 2021

January – June 2020 Global Off-Grid Solar Market Report

The last semi annual-sales report from GOGLA, the industry association for off grid lighting, is available by this link here.

This has some interesting information. On page 18 it shows the first half year sales for 2020 for VeraSol approved products (i.e. those that meet the international quality standard which is now IEC 62257-9-8) in Haiti as 2,246. This is only one tenth the level achieved by smaller countries in Africa such as Togo or Benin, which is why OGEF launched its Results Based Financing scheme in November 2020 to promote VeraSol approved products. Click here for more information.

Other interesting issues in the report are the trend to PAYGO (i.e. payment plans) with one third of sales worldwide now being with PAYGO and this channel was sustained even when COVID 19 hit cash sales in many countries (see page 16). Also the continuing growth of high efficiency DC products such as TVs, fans, and now fridges. These products now offer good value to customers, considering the lower consumption of electricity.

Quality, stand alone, solar products and systems are seen as a key part of the solution to bring electricity to off grid households and OGEF is dedicated to helping finance companies selling these products in Haiti.