ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Insights from Uganda on why solar street lights make sense

Solar powered street lights in Kampala, Uganda [Photo: The Conversation]

Insights from Uganda on why solar street lights make sense

byThe Conversation
April 26, 2019
4 min read

By Andrew Sudmant, University of Leeds and Andy Gouldson, University of Leeds

Street-lighting is important. It allows informal vendors and traders to operate for longer hours and improves road and public safety. It also makes streets feel safer and more secure, especially for women.

But street-lighting is sorely lacking in many of sub-Saharan Africa’s cities, and where it is present it’s highly unreliable. In Kampala, Uganda, for example just 8% of the city’s paved road and street network is illuminated.

In cities faced with multiple pressing challenges and very limited budgets, street lighting is rarely a priority.

Even when there’s political will, there are major barriers to implementing conventional street-lighting. Many cities have large areas of informal settlements which aren’t connected to the national grid. The upfront costs of grid connectivity and street light infrastructure – like poles, lamps and pavements – are huge.

The solution may lie instead with solar lighting. We wrote a policy research paper based on work we did in two Ugandan cities, the capital Kampala and Jinja a secondary city with a population of around 80,000, and found that solar street-lighting could offer a cheaper, more sustainable solution – and bring huge benefits.

Solar street lights are cheaper to install and operate since they generate their own power, instead of drawing from the grid.

Saving money

We chose Kampala and Jinja because both cities’ governments had installed solar street lights in 2018: more than 1800 in Kampala and 92 in Jinja. We wanted to know what the lights’ impact had been since they were installed and if this could be replicated in other cities across Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa.

We analysed national policy documents and city development strategies and consulted with research colleagues at Makerere University in Kampala to identify a range of stakeholders to interview. In total, we interviewed 23 people including government officials, NGOs and members of local communities, like business owners and road users.

RelatedNews

Ministry of Interior, INEC, others make presentations as Buhari presides over FEC

UPDATED: Zenith Bank becomes Nigeria’s biggest bank by asset

Electricity, telecommunication top consumer complaints in 2020 – FCCPC

Ministry of Petroleum, others make presentations as Buhari presides over virtual FEC

Across the two cities, the average cost for a solar light was around USD$1,600 per solar street light pole, compared to USD$2,150 for a conventional street light pole. In Jinja the city’s US$350,000 electricity debt led to the conventional street lights being turned off. They are still off today.

If these projects were replicated nationwide, the Ugandan government could reduce its upfront costs by 25%, electricity costs by 40% and maintenance costs by 60%.

Solar lighting also had almost no operating costs because you put the lights up and leave the sun to do the rest. Conversely, conventional lighting incur large electricity bills and higher maintenance costs because bulbs need to be replaced more frequently.

Dangote adbanner 728x90_2 (1)

Multiple benefits

Local residents and NGO workers we spoke to identified many knock-on effects from both solar street-light projects.

In Jinja residents of a low-income settlement, where 20 solar street lights were installed, said that the lights created safer streets and allowed small businesses to stay open for an extra five hours per day. This is particularly important for low-income groups who can now make more money in the day.

The street lights have the potential to do much more.

For example, solar lights can help increase trading hours for small businesses. And thanks to savings on electricity, the cities’ governments could also redirect saved funds into the setting up of more street lights and other public services.

Rolling out

Though we found many benefits to the use of solar street-lights, there were challenges too.

First, cities in Uganda, as in many sub-Saharan Africa countries, lack the domestic expertise to plan and implement new solar lighting projects. This means municipalities have to rely on external donors for developing city plans rather than developing domestic markets which could spur national growth.

ADVERTISEMENT

Second, though the economic case for choosing solar over conventional street lights is clear, municipalities lack the necessary capital to finance their upfront investment. There’s also a high risk that replacement lights could be unaffordable if municipal budgeting is not improved.

To overcome these challenges, national governments should create a more robust regulatory framework to grow and control domestic solar markets; building the capacity of municipal staff to plan, finance and deliver infrastructure projects; and ensure a wide range of stakeholders –- including local communities –- are involved in the planning of projects in order to maximise the social returns.

Lucy Oates, a Research Fellow on the Economics of Climate Smart Cities research program at the University of Leeds, contributed to this article.

Andrew Sudmant, PhD candidate and research Fellow in the Economics of Climate Smart Cities research programme, University of Leeds and Andy Gouldson, Professor of Environmental Policy and Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Interdisciplinary Research), University of Leeds

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The conversation
  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket

Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: To advertise here . Call Willie +2347088095401...


JOIN THE CONVERSATION

  • Disqus (0)
premiumtimes



PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

All employers must pay new national minimum wage — NLC

Next Post

Why women’s involvement is so vital to water projects’ success – or failure

The Conversation

The Conversation

More News

The Commercial space is as yet undeveloped within the airport departures area, two years after its opening.”

Reporter’s Diary: Abuja’s not so world-class new airport terminal

December 27, 2020
President Nana Akufo Addo and John Atta Mills

Dispatch From Accra: Ghanaians prepare to elect a president

December 6, 2020
Houses in Goma bordering Lake Kivu

TRAVELOGUE: Inside Goma: Dangerous city of diamonds, war and volcano

December 6, 2020
Segun Odegbami with Wole Soyinka at the Autonomous Republic of Ijegba

TRAVELOGUE: At home with Soyinka at the Autonomous Republic of Ijegba, By Segun Odegbami

November 29, 2020
TRAVELOGUE: Around Zamfara in seven days, By Femi Fani-Kayode

TRAVELOGUE: Around Zamfara in seven days, By Femi Fani-Kayode

July 26, 2020
lufthansa-airlines

Lufthansa plans job cut, to ground 500 aircraft by 2022

May 19, 2020
Next Post
Barry Aliman, 24 years old, bicycles with her baby to fetch water for her family, Sorobouly village near Boromo, Burkina Faso. Photo by Ollivier Girard/CIFOR cifor.org blog.cifor.org

Why women’s involvement is so vital to water projects’ success – or failure

Owner and two dogs going for a walk [Photo: https://www.hornsby.nsw.gov.au]

Pets: is it ethical to keep them?

Discussion about this post

Search

#EndSARS: Latest Updates




Polaris Bank


JAIZ Ad


NITDA Ad





Glo Ad

Subscribe to News via Email

Enter your email address and receive notifications of news by email.

Join 1,627,658 other subscribers.

Advertisement






netherland biz school Advert



Zenith Advert
ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • COVID-19
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Features
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Markets
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • Opinion
  • PT Hausa
  • The Membership Club
  • Dubawa
    • Dubawa NG
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
  • Digital Store
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.