Beyond technology and finance: pay-as-you-go sustainable energy access and theories of social change

Two-thirds of people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, a precursor of poverty reduction and development. The international community has ambitious commitments in this regard, e.g. the UN's Sustainable Energy for All by 2030. But scholarship has not kept up with policy ambitions. This paper operationalises a sociotechnical transitions perspective to analyse for the first time the potential of new, mobileenabled, pay-as-you-go approaches to financing sustainable energy access, focussing on a case study of pay-as-you-go approaches to financing solar home systems in Kenya. The analysis calls into question the adequacy of the dominant, two-dimensional treatment of sustainable energy access in the literature as a purely financial/technology, economics/ engineering problem (which ignores sociocultural and political considerations) and demonstrates the value of a new research agenda that explicitly attends to theories of social change – even when, as in this paper, the focus is purely on finance. The paper demonstrates that sociocultural considerations cut across the literature's traditional two-dimensional analytic categories (technology and finance) and are material to the likely success of any technological or financial intervention. It also demonstrates that the alignment of new payas- you-go finance approaches with existing sociocultural practices of paying for energy can explain their early success and likely longevity relative to traditional finance approaches

An investigation into the stability of the Phillips curve for the United Kingdom in the period 1950-70

The study begins with a survey of some of the theoretical work on the wage-change equation, followed by a complementary summary of some of the empirical evidence on the determinants of wage inflation in the United Kingdom for the post war sample period. Estimates are then presented of the wage-change equation for the United Kingdom for the chosen (1950-70) sample period, using annual data, in order to explore the sensitivity of the results to the use of alternative wage- rate and unemployment series, and to the use of alternative definitions of the time rate of change variables. The main enquiry of the study centres on the use of the unemployment rate as an efficient proxy for the degree of excess demand for labour in the theory of the Phillips curve. It is possible that the observed instability of the curve may reflect the fact that the reported unemployment rate has become increasingly inefficient as such a proxy. An important source of error in the reported unemployment statistics is due to the non-registration by 'secondary' workers in the labour force. Estimates are presented of some 'adjusted' unemployment series which take into account the cyclical nature of this non-registration; and which are worked up from an analysis of participation rates in the United Kingdom. These estimates are carried over into an analysis of the 'mapping' from excess demand to unemployment where the objective is to identify and measure changes in the level of 'maladjustment' unemployment (the level associated with zero aggregate excess demand for labour). Estimates are obtained of maladjustment unemployment, and these are used to further correct the unemployment statistics for changes in 'maladjustment' unemployment. Finally this corrected unemployment series is incorporated in the aggregate wage-change equation to re-examine the statistical significance of the Phillips relation

Feeling Safe in the Dark : Examining the Effect of Entrapment, Lighting Levels, and Gender on Feelings of Safety and Lighting Policy Acceptability

This research examined to what extent physical factors, notably lighting and entrapment (blocked escape), and individual factors, notably gender, affect feelings of safety and the acceptability of reduced lighting levels. The authors reasoned that acceptability of reduced street lighting depends on perceived safety, which in turn depends on entrapment, lighting, and gender. Virtual representations of a residential street were used, systematically manipulating entrapment and lighting levels. As expected, people felt less safe in lower lighting and higher entrapment settings, and these settings were evaluated as less acceptable. Although women perceived a situation as less safe compared with men, the authors found no gender differences in acceptability, which extends previous research. Importantly, as hypothesized, perceived safety mediated the effect of lighting on acceptability levels, suggesting that people can accept lower lighting levels when social safety is not threatened

Solar PV Lighting and Studying after Sunset: Analysis of Micro-benefits in Off-grid Rural Ghana

Solar PV light provides school children living in off-grid rural communities the opportunity to have clean and bright lighting to study after sunset. On the contrary, lighting provided from poor sources can pollute and adversely affect human eyes during reading and writing. Using indicator-based questionnaires in cross-sectional surveys, households with and without solar PV lighting were surveyed in off-grid rural communities in Ghana. The study investigated lighting and children’s studies after sunset. The results indicated that whereas solar PV light of 5-20 watts dc lamps was sufficient for 5-6 children to study together, lighting from kerosene lantern could be sufficient for 1-3 children. All things being equal, the results showed that children who use solar PV light to study upto 2 hours after sunset are likely to improve on their examination results. The extent to which solar PV lighting significantly impacts on studying after sunset was established using some identified indicators. Knowledge of the results provides understanding of the relative constraints in lighting services faced by children in rural communities without access to quality lighting. Such micro-level data will help to enhance policy and planning efforts to increase access to clean and renewable energy-based lighting devices to achieve efficient visual comfort in off-grid rural communities

Investigation of Lighting Levels for Pedestrians - Some questions about lighting levels of current lighting standards

22-23 September, 200

Lighting the Farmstead

PDF pages: 3

Pressurized lighting system

Safe lighting assembly has been constructed for hostile environments. Assembly is ventilated by inert gas to prolong life of lamps. Lighting assembly contains control box, number of lamps connected in parallel, several pilot lights, and ventilating circuit. Control box is provided with components for monitoring and controlling flow of ventilating gas through lamp assemblies