The Decentralized Water Market: Assessing and Overcoming the Hurdles to Scale in Kenya

International Financial Corporation and Safe Water Network undertook this assessment to identify options for attracting greater commercial investment in the water sector, in Kenya and elsewhere. This includes an examination of the policy environment and of the populations' ability to pay for water at prices necessary to fund private investment, as well as a review of existing models to determine which are scalable in this context

The New Solar Kiosk Model: A Sustainable Solution to Address the Uptake and Access of Renewable Technologies to Create Energy Kiosks That Improve Women’s Income in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Kiryandongo District, Northern Uganda.

This thesis was carried out in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Northern Uganda to test a new model to improve access to clean energy technologies in the refugee settlement. The settlement hosts more than seventy-five thousand refugees, including the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the Bududa landslides in Eastern Uganda. The literature review shows the challenges faced in the humanitarian sector. The challenge is met in providing lighting and improved cooking technologies to all refugees in settlements and camps globally. The refugees tend to cut down trees in the surrounding forest, and the wood is used for firewood to cook and lighting up their homes. The solar kiosk model has improved access to affordable briquettes, which is a replacement for charcoal and firewood, while solar products provide clean light. The four installed solar kiosks have contributed to the distribution of 577 Solar Home Systems, 843 improved charcoal stoves, and 18480.37 Kilograms of briquettes, and two purifiers were purchased. In terms of accessibility, the time to buy the technologies has dramatically reduced because the clean energy technologies are closer to the community members. The sale of water purifiers is low, having sold only two pieces in a population where over 90% drink unsafe water from wells and boreholes in the settlement. For the model to be sustainable, this study established that there is a need for continuous product education for both the kiosk operators and the masses in the community to live a more sustainable life

An explorative study of the synergy between social enterprises and local micro-entrepreneurs in the provision of off-grid clean energy access

Alleviating energy poverty requires innovative and sustainable business models for delivering energy access. Social enterprises have entered off-grid clean energy access markets, pioneering innovative energy access business models, many of which involve the participation of local micro-entrepreneurs. This research study explores the synergy between social enterprises and local micro-entrepreneurs, specifically in terms of the business models used to incorporate local micro-entrepreneurs into off-grid clean energy value chains and the stages of the value chain in which the local micro-entrepreneurs participate. It furthermore identifies key enabling enterprise ecosystem conditions. A qualitative research methodology and a multiple case study design was used. The sample consisted of 11 respondents, selected through purposive sampling. A semi-structured interview served as the primary data collection instrument and a thematic within-case and cross-case analysis was carried out. This research study represents a pioneering effort, contributing to a growing body of knowledge on innovative participatory business models for energy access

Sustainability Assessment of Wireless Community Grid for Off-Grid Communities: A Case Study for Haiti

Affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy service is fundamental to human, social and economic development. Approximately 1.2 billion people lack access to basic energy services. There exists a huge energy access gap between urban centers and rural areas. Approximately 84% of the people deprived of energy access live in rural areas. Existing rural electrification options including grid extension, mini-grids, and stand-alone solar home systems, have limited penetration in rural regions. Entrepreneurs, with support from governments and international institutions, have experimented with different business mechanisms to facilitate energy delivery. A significant amount of investment is being made for rural electrification but many projects are not self-sustaining. This research develops a new approach, ‘Wireless Community Grid’, to provide basic energy services to rural households and evaluates if the approach meets the desired features of affordability, profitability, and scalability. The approach comprises of a central charging station operated by local vendors, where portable power systems are charged and rented to homeowners. Each portable power system provides power to each home in the form of indoor lighting and device charging. Each power system is swapped from the station at a regular interval. To understand the energy needs and expenses of a rural population, surveys were conducted in Borgne, Haiti. The major sources for lighting are kerosene lamps, rechargeable bulbs and candles. For charging lights and phones, people have to walk to a vendor with solar systems or generators. Based on three surveyed communities, each household typically spends $2.50 a week on energy services and local vendors make$0.70 a week from each household served. To explore the sustainability of the Wireless Community Grid approach, three preliminary evaluation models were developed. First, a techno-economic tool was used to evaluate the relationship between reliability and cost. Based on the developed tool, a system consisting of 350 W solar array and 58 portable power units with 283 Wh capacity would meet the basic energy needs of a community of 49 households at the lowest present value. Second, a life cycle assessment was performed to study the environmental impacts. It was observed that the proposed system would provide a yearly reduction of 382 kg of CO2 equivalents and 197 kg of crude oil equivalents for each household served compared to the current energy state. Finally, a social business structure was proposed to maximize the number of people impacted while keeping the system affordable and self-sustainable. While keeping the household energy cost level at $2.50/week for energy services, the capital investment of$6100 for a community system, could be recovered in less than 2 years. Over 10 years, the returns on a single investment would be able to expand to 64 similar communities and provide energy services to around 19,000 people. The wireless community grid approach appears to be affordable for end-users and provides profits for local vendors while being financially and environmentally sustainable and highly scalable

Addressing developmental needs through energy access in informal settlements

Integrated Energy Centres, solar power community hubs for need based services, have been operationalised by SELCO Foundation for informal migrant communities in Karnataka, India since 2011. There are 26 IECs till date, offering 22 different services. Through the interventions, 6074 households have been impacted. The paper describes three different models through case studies illustrating their operational and financial aspects

Mechanisms to Ensure Pro-Poor Water Service Delivery in Peri-Urban and Urban areas

This report presents an overview of mechanisms for ensuring access to safe and affordable water services for the urban poor, as found in global literature. After presenting the main issues related to access to water services for the (peri-) urban poor in section 2, the report presents a number of options for improving utility-related water services to the poor in section 3, and options going beyond the utility in section 4. Finally, the conclusions of this report are presented in section 5

Advancing Green Economy through Technology Transfer: Experiences from Malawi

The transfer of green technologies to developing countries is often touted as a key green economy measure for alleviating poverty and improving welfare. This qualitative study explores the transfer of renewable energy technologies in Malawi with a view to (i) evaluating how green economy principles have been integrated in technology transfer projects, and (ii) highlighting how successfully implemented pilot and innovative solar energy kiosks and solar fish dryers can serve as case studies on enhancing environmental education efforts. Based on experiences from the projects, a literature review, site visits and key-informant interviews were conducted. A qualitative evaluation was performed based on intuitive judgment and a general framework of internationally agreed-upon green economy principles. The results show that the technology transfer projects integrated a substantial number of green economy principles, and that embracing local traditional knowledge in  implementing modern green economy technologies in the context of helping local communities to alleviate poverty are key factors in encouraging innovation in environmental education, and improving project  acceptability among local communities. We recommend increased knowledge-sharing to popularise the   integration of green economy measures into poverty alleviation projects. This can be accomplished through both technical and educational study visits to the  technology transfer projects, documenting practical, locally generated sustainable ideas, and disseminating information on successes and lessons learnt

IMMOVABLE PROPERTY MARKETS IN METROPOLITAN TIRANA, ALBANIA

This paper uses information from three empirical studies to describe, after seven years of privatization and real estate market transactions, how the physical space of the city of Tirana is presently organized, and how active real estate markets have been. The first empirical study, fielded in December 1997 (completed in January 1998), was based on an "area sample" of the city of Tirana. One-hectare grid squares were overlaid on the city's 3,060 hectares within the municipal boundary, and a random sample was taken of these grids. Eighteen grid squares within the ring roads (an area of 340 hectares) and 14 grid squares between the ring roads and the outer municipal boundary (an area of 2,720 hectares) were randomly selected. Within the selected grid squares of 1 hectare each, research teams visited each property and questioned the holders about its use, who owned it, when it was constructed, and other characteristics of the property. The sample values obtained from the questionnaires were then "expanded" by the sampling ratio to describe the physical space of Tirana within the city's municipal boundaries. The second study of the transactions recorded in the Hipoteka Office of Tirana was done in early 1998. All documents from 1993 through 1997 were classified according to type of property involved, and the number of transactions were tabulated. The third study of real estate prices from 1993 to 1997 was done based on the data of one real estate agency in February 1998. This database represents approximately 70 percent of all offerings of real estate for sale done through real estate agencies in Tirana.Real property--Prices--Albania--Tirana, Land use, Urban--Albania--Tirana, Land titles--Registration and transfer--Albania--Tirana, Real estate development--Albania--Tirana, Land markets--Albania--Tirana, Land tenure, Urban--Albania--Tirana, Land Economics/Use,

Decentralised Energy

As the contribution of renewable energy increases to meet climate change objectives, so does the extent to which electricity is generated by individuals and communities, moving a centralised system to a more decentralised one, with associated system management and integration challenges. However, new digital and storage technologies are enabling local system management, and reducing the need for, and cost of, centralised planning. Creating the right regulatory environment is crucial, but it is especially challenging given the pace of technology change. This book describes the deploying renewable energy in selected countries and describes how each stage is affected by the regulatory and industrial environments, as gives examples of how new business models that enable greater penetration of renewables and more localised grid management and consumer engagement are being deployed