Clean light

In northern Uganda district of Alebtong, Patrick Abali (32) purchased Firefly Lamp to not only light his home at night but also start business of charging mobile phones.

The Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamp has three parts - the light, the battery and the solar panel to charge the battery. Other components are the switch and a micro-controller to avoid overcharge and over-discharge of the battery.

"I am not worried about the prices of paraffin going up because my fuel (sun) is free. My children can now read and night and prepare well for their examination," Abali said.

"Most importantly my wife has a commercial venture to manage. She re-charges phone batteries of our clients and that is another side income for the family."

According to the main findings of "Phone Charging Micro-businesses in Tanzania and Uganda" research conducted in 2011, phone charging is a highly viable economic activity where the grid is absent or where grid electricity is present but used by few people.

The report, conducted by Simon Collings of Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEMP) International, stated that the availability of a local charging service results in greater phone use and increased expenditure on airtime.

"The lack of accessible sources of electricity for recharging a phone is a huge constraint on use and denies many people the full benefits to be derived from a phone which include increased economic activity, banking services, information, and reduced travel time, the report read.

It stated that phone charging is a highly profitable activity. On average businesses in Tanzania are charging 19-20 phones a day and in Uganda 7-8 phone a day..

According to the report, a business charging 20 phones a day (600 phones a month) at $17 cents a go earns revenues of $100 a month.

"The size of system required to service this level of business costs around $480 (excluding installation) meaning the business can pay for itself in five months," the report adds. "Once the system is paid for the business has virtually no costs. In addition to charging phones the entrepreneurs operating from their home also used the solar PV system for lighting and TV.

Dr. Izael Da Silva, the director of the Centre for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC) in his book published in 2002: "Global Lighting Energy Savings-Potential Light and Engineering stated the single greatest way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with lighting energy use is to replace kerosene lamps with white LED lighting.

The benefits of Off-grid system is it extends extend the working day for small and medium enterprises and this leads to growth in production, improving working conditions and increasing customers.

Further the technology enhances safety and security via outdoor lighting for personal, business and community activities as well as education by creating conditions to attract teachers retain students, expand time for student reading and studying both in the classroom and at home.

The long productivity time in homes raises household incomes as well as expands time for adult literacy and higher education programmes. The systems improve health services delivery and reduce greenhouse gas emission.

Despite Uganda's ambitious plan to connect rural areas to the national grid, there still remains a big market for off-grid business as defined by the total number of unconnected households and their current spending on kerosene for lighting and other lighting products.