ISSUE 20 / JULY / 2011 IN FOCUS LIGHTING AFRICA NEWS Portable Solar Lights in Chicken Farming- Illuminating the Pecking Order Lighting Africa releases updated quality assurance framework Lighting Africa recently launched an updated framework for quality assurance to best support the market over the long term as the industry matures. Some things will stay the same going forward, like the multi-level, independent testing regime and the technical briefing notes series. The updated elements include revisions to the framework for interpreting quality and performance test results and a valuable new tool for publicly releasing and verifying test results- the Standardized Specifications Sheet. These improvements were strongly influenced by stakeholder input, and we feel that they strengthen the program considerably. Lighting Africa's unique, global position in the off-grid lighting market means we support programs and stakeholders with a variety of product performance needs and differences in willingness to pay among consumers. To help make the quality assurance framework more widely applicable, The three chicken houses on the farm in Maai Mahiu, we separated the Lighting Africa benchmarks into the Minimum Quality Standards and Kenya. Each house is equipped with a different lighting source, either kerosene lanterns, CFL bulbs, or LED solar Recommended Performance Targets. portable systems. ©Lighting Africa/ Jennifer Tracy The Minimum Quality Standards focus on truth-in-advertising and adherence to basic quality Mr. Karanu successfully runs a commercial chicken criteria, such as lumen maintenance, IP-class, and durability tests, but do not include minimum farm in Maai Mahiu, Kenya, despite having no performance requirements for run time or light output. To meet the Performance Targets, a connection to the grid. He has a contract with Kenya’s product must pass the Minimum Quality Standards and also achieve the run time and light output dominant chicken distributor, Kenchic Ltd., to buy performance requirements that Lighting Africa has been using for the past year. The separation chicks and then sell them back when they are grown between quality standards and performance targets allows the program to identify good quality chickens, typically after a 35-day growth cycle. products across a variety of performance levels, and it also creates a flexible Performance Target Lighting is a key element of the maturation process framework that can be adapted to meet the needs of a variety of bulk purchase buyers and because light stimulates the chickens to eat and grow markets. to their full size and weight. The chickens are raised in houses that are lit for between 20-24 hours per day. Standardized Specifications Sheets (SSS) are the new tool for publicizing Lighting Africa test On Mr. Karanu’s farm, there are three identical results, and are available on the Lighting Africa website (lightingafrica.org/specs). They are only chicken sheds and each one houses about 3,000 made available for products that pass the Minimum Quality Standards to ensure a baseline level chicks. After starting out in 2006 using kerosene lamps of quality for the products Lighting Africa supports. There are resources to help interpret and for lighting, Mr. Karanu quickly saw the benefits of understand the specs sheets at the bottom of the page at: lightingafrica.org/specs. switching to solar. What does this mean for me? “It was basically a cost issue; Kerosene was going up,” he explained. - For Manufacturers, the separation of Quality Standards and Performance Targets means that there will be new types of support available for a wider variety of good quality By investing in a solar and wind powered lighting products. The specs sheets can be used to publicize your product's quality and system, he said he spent a significant amount up performance in a verifiable, authoritative format. front, but knows he will save in the long run. - For Policymakers, the quality assurance framework can be more easily adapted to meet your needs. The Minimum Quality Standards are Lighting Africa's recommendation for a The Lighting Africa/Lumina Project Field Study baseline level of consumer protection and the Performance Targets can be tailored, if necessary, to meet local needs. From August to September 2010, Lighting Africa and - For Distributors, Bulk Purchasers, MFI's, and Others, the Standardized Specifications The Lumina Project conducted a field test on Mr. 1 Sheets offer a quick and transparent way to evaluate the quality and performance of Karanu’s farm during one chick rearing cycle. (cont. products that you may want to buy or incorporate into programs. p2) “They definitely had more light and the STORIES FROM THE FIELD advantage was that you could adjust the lamps the way you want.” In addition, results showed that in the first two sheds, chicks clustered to feed under available light sources, whereas in the LED house the chickens spread themselves more evenly because the LED bulbs provided a broader light distribution. Mr. Karanu acknowledged that, of the LED lamp chicken house. Photo taken without the flash to show actual lighting conditions. three options, the portable LED solar ©Lighting Africa/ Jennifer Tracy lamps worked the best. Each shed was lit using differing off-grid lighting sources: Map of Mafia Island, Tanzania kerosene lamps, fluorescent lights powered by Mr. Karanu’s solar/wind system and good quality portable Targeting Schools to Reach Whole solar LED lighting. At the end of the study, while the Communities chickens rate of growth stayed fairly constant in all three cases, there were key differences in light emission, Referring to climbing fuel prices, Dr Moody, distribution and efficiency, including: a local doctor, businessman and resident of Mafia Island off the southeast coast of - The kerosene lamps produced poor light, needed to be cleaned Tanzania, said. “Not many families can use and refilled every six hours and emitted carbon emissions. kerosene at home now.” - The more permanently installed solar/wind powered fluorescent The majority of Mafia Island’s 50,000 system was clean and effective but was expensive to purchase residents do not have access to electricity and install. and while charcoal is widely used for cooking, lighting from kerosene lamps is fast becoming a luxury. - The good quality portable solar lamps offered by Lighting Africa were cheaper per unit and easy to install. In October 2010, portable solar light manufacturer d.light and the NGO SolarAid OFF-GRID LIGHTING SECTOR NEWS responded by developing a program to help get affordable, reliable and superior quality lighting into families’ homes. Their Green Energy Loans for the Poor approach involved focussing on Mafia Island’s primary and secondary students, Microfinance institutions in Ghana are leading efforts to bring affordable solar lighting to the poor. The who were given the chance to own a solar Christian Rural Aid Network (CRAN) is one such institution and is aiming to provide energy loans to 20,000 powered task light at a subsidized price. people over the next 18 months. By working with Mafia Island’s 11,100 “The success of our initial piloting showed demand is so enormous that we intend to replicate our program school children (and thus their family in many areas of Ghana,” says Dr. Patrick Agbesinyale, Executive Director of CRAN Microfinance. members), the entire island community soon became aware of solar lighting as a CRAN is providing these energy loans with the support of Impact Energies Ghana, which delivers cheaper, more sustainable, and better innovative financing, supply and distribution support to microfinance organizations. lighting option than kerosene lamps. CRAN is a Ghanaian registered, non-governmental organization that was established in 1993 to meet the “To be honest we were stunned,” said needs of rural and peri-urban poor communities and individuals in the Central, Western and Volta regions Claire Pederson of SolarAid, of Ghana. It supports its valued clients through the provision of microfinance and social development Tanzania. “After handing out leaflets, every programs, supporting basic educational infrastructure, child education sponsorship, community single headmaster on the island turned up sensitization, training, advocacy and health and sanitation. for our initial meeting and all forty schools then placed orders for solar For more information contact Noble at noblekuk@yahoo.co.uk or Hugh at hwhalan@impactenergies.com lamps. Everyone was very excited.” PV Tax Cut in Kenya As part of the initiative, the school headmasters received intensive training on Players in the solar energy market recently won a reprieve when the government removed tax on the benefits of solar lighting and the imported raw materials for the manufacture of solar panels. students received instruction on how to operate and maintain the lamps. The move should also cut costs for consumers, eliminating one of the stumbling blocks against adoption of green energy. It will also reduce demand on the national electricity grid, which is currently under (cont. p3) pressure from the country’s growing manufacturing sector. More at: 2 http://www.lightingafrica.org/kenya-tax-cut-on-solar-panels-to-light-up-more-homes.html?layout=item STORIES FROM THE FIELD Having converted to solar lighting, Jacinta is now the (cont. from p2) envy of her friends: "One of my relatives saw the The outreach was wildly successful: more than 3,000 task lamps at my house and took a lights were sold in less than a week. pack straight away. Before, Mr. Halfani, Headmaster of Micheni Secondary school, kerosene was costing me 800 ordered 120 solar lamps for his student body of 106. Some to 1,000 (Kenyan) shillings students even took two lights, while others were bought by per month (about $9.35 - teachers at full retail price. $11.7). Now the new lamps are saving me a lot of Mafia Island’s children are now able to study at home at money." night. “Since owning the solar lights, the students’ performance has improved. They are now doing better in Modern lighting can expand the working hours for their exams,” Mr. Halfani said. small businesses © Lighting Africa Since the schools program took place last year, demand has outstripped supply. “People like solar products very “100% better" much. We are now waiting for a new shipment to arrive in Dar es Salaam,” said Dr Moody, who is also a solar lighting distributer. This monthly saving helps Jacinta cope with a recent escalation in food and living costs. There are other benefits too. "Kerosene smoke caused eye irritation and the Lighting Africa supports the Tanzania Rural Energy Agency light was not enough. When I was not home, I always had to ask someone to go and (REA) and its Lighting Rural Tanzania (LRT) grant sit with my kids because the paraffin lamps were not safe. Now the children can just competition. d.light is one of 10 LRT grant competition switch the lights on and start studying safely." winners, receiving funding to support its lighting initiatives. d. Light Design’s ‘Nova S200' also won second Jacinta runs three lamps from four to five hours each day and the fourth runs all place in the room lighting award category at the Lighting night until morning. She installed the system herself. "You don't have to bring Africa Outstanding Product Awards Competition, May 2010. someone to help you connect. I did it myself which was very nice." "We need more lamps!" ASSOCIATE NEWS Kerosene can be scarce expensive. Twenty shillings is barely enough to buy 20ml of Farm Workers Enjoy the Benefits of Solar Lighting fuel from small distributors. As a result, farm workers are spending almost their entire daily wage on kerosene. The Firefly 12 Mobile and PowaPack 5W lamps sell as L: Barefoot Power Firefly 12 soon as they are delivered to the farm. Mobile; R: Barefoot Power Powapack 5W Eager to own a lamp, farm employees have left deposits ahead of the next delivery; others are pleading for a full loan in order to buy the products. The surrounding community would like a shop where they too can purchase solar lamps. "When I put in the new solar lights, my kid thought it was electricity and told me to turn on the TV! There's no difference Jacinta is happy with the phone charging facility on her solar lighting system. "Could to main power (grid electricity), the solar is very bright. " we get a solar product that can run a TV and DVD player too?" she asks. The Barefoot PowaPack 5W and Firefly 12 Mobile are two of the eight products that meet Lighting Jacinta, 27, is a mother and employed at Olerai Farm in Narok, Africa recommended performance targets for product quality. Kenya. She was able to purchase her PowaPack 5W lighting system, which includes a set of four solar LED lamps and a 5W Barefoot Power’s goal is to make off-grid lighting technology affordable to people at solar panel and battery for recharging, through a scheme the base of the pyramid. Lighting Africa recognized the company's commitment to sponsored by the farm. quality when Barefoot Power won four Lighting Africa Outstanding Product Awards in May, 2010. The awards and recognition have assisted Barefoot Power in its Farm employees have the option to buy either the Barefoot marketing efforts. Power PowaPack 5W lighting system or the smaller Barefoot Firefly 12 Mobile lamp by paying the first 50 percent upfront Lighting Africa supports products that have met the recommended performance and then the remainder over three months. targets for quality through its consumer education campaigns and other market development activities. This includes business-to-business linkages with large This easy-to-pay scheme was conceived after the Lighting corporates and microfinance institutions to support the growth of local distributors Africa Program introduced management of the farm to and importers and expand the reach of solar lanterns to small businesses and low Barefoot Power, a manufacturer of solar lighting products. income households. Lighting Africa works to establish such contacts as part of its business development support activities. 3 d.light Opens New Office In Nairobi NEW RESOURCES d.light has recently announced the opening of a new field Lighting Africa releases two new Briefing Notes office in Nairobi, Kenya. While their previous office in Dar es Salaam was only able to serve Tanzania, the new field office will act as the company’s central hub for sales, marketing, and Lighting Africa has released two new technical briefing notes: the first one, on after-sales activities throughout Africa. Lighting Efficiency and Product Design Optimization, discusses the lighting product design process from an energy and efficiency perspective. d.light has long recognized that many areas within Africa are key markets for them. About 110 million households across It is intended to help manufacturers design efficient, high performance products and Africa do not have grid electricity, while millions more have avoid the false choice between good performance and low product cost. only limited electricity (Lighting Africa, 2010). The second briefing note provides guidance for Interpreting the Information on a “We have seen this ourselves in the form of growing demand Standard Specifications Sheet. for high-quality solar products across the continent. d.light is committed to providing the best consumer products and the Lighting Africa’s standard specification sheets provide third-party verification of best service for our partners and end-users in Africa.” quality and performance for off-grid lighting products that have been tested according to the Lighting Africa Quality Test Method (LA-QTM). This briefing note explains what to make of the data on a standardized specification sheet. “Opening this office in Nairobi brings us closer to our customers and enhances the services that we provide to our partners. I am extremely proud of the team that we have assembled in Nairobi, who, cumulatively, have over six Download the Briefing Notes: decades of experience in sales, marketing, and distribution to base-of-the-pyramid consumers in Africa and other emerging http://www.lightingafrica.org/resources/briefing-notes.html markets.” - Chairman and CEO – Mr. Donn Tice For more information: d.light limited Off James Gichuru Road, Next to Muthangari Police Station PO Box 51116 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Lighting Africa website: Register today! +254 731 896 899 dlight-africa@dlightdesign.com To get access to cutting-edge market trend analysis, market reports, quality assurance information, and other materials free of charge, kindly take a moment to register an account. The Lighting Africa Newsletter is a briefing on the latest developments in the Lighting Africa program www.lightingafrica.org/register/join/registers and the off-grid lighting market. It is provided to all organizations and individuals in the Lighting Africa network. Help us help you tell your story by sending us your articles! Lighting Africa does not endorse the contents of the articles submitted by its members. To submit articles or for comments, questions, or suggestions, please contact our project team at: support@lightingafrica.org Stay Connected www.lightingafrica.org 4