By Katia Theriault, Lindsay Madeira and Patrick Avato
Viewed from space, Africa emerges as looming in an impenetrable shadow, the portrait of a continent cast in darkness. NASA’s satellite image reveals the sheer magnitude of a problem that affects an estimated 1.6 billion people, representing 1/3 of the global population. The problem is particularly acute in Africa, where more than 90 percent of the rural population and 74 percent of the total population live outside grid connectivity. Consequently, the 500 million “energy poor” are reliant on traditional forms of energy to meet their lighting needs, dominated by fuel-based sources such as kerosene, a costly and inefficient alternative that consumes 10-15 percent of annual household income. For the poorest families, the significantly high expenditures on kerosene for meeting their lighting needs affects their ability to pay for other day-to-day necessities, such as children’s education, family health care and nutrition, etc. Exacerbating this problem, fuel-based lighting also produces greenhouse gases (GHGs), leads to increased indoor air pollution and associated health risks, inhibits productivity and jeopardizes human safety.
The opportunity