Coronavirus crisis threatens to cut off clean electricity lifeline for poor

Companies that provide clean off-grid electricity to the poor in developing nations are searching for ways to stay afloat – and keep life-saving power on – through the coronavirus pandemic, as the economic fallout from the crisis empties customers’ pockets. The nascent industry fears being starved of new capital as investors shun risk amid an expected recession – a crunch that could force weak firms out of business and scupper progress on a global goal to provide modern energy to everyone by 2030.

In a survey by international organisation Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), 80 businesses running mini-grids and selling solar home systems in Africa and Asia said they expected to lose on average 27%-40% of their revenues in the coming months due to COVID-19 impacts. Many such companies, operating in Africa and Asia, rely on small daily or weekly payments from poor consumers who use mobile money on their phones to buy solar power from mini-grids or cover instalments on loans for home solar systems. But economists are warning that shutdowns to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus pose a major threat to the livelihoods of street vendors, farm labourers, construction workers and others with insecure employment.

The International Renewable Energy Agency and African Union Commission agreed last week to cooperate on projects such as helping rural health centres and communities deal with COVID-19 by using renewable power to run critical services. Those include operating medical equipment and pumping water for better hygiene. Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Development Programme, said there would be an opportunity in the next five years for huge investment in building clean energy infrastructure in Africa, where nearly 600 million people still lack electricity. Such investment, while helping meet goals to tackle climate change, would also have “massive positive impacts for rural areas, poorer segments in society and actually will provide Africa with something that it urgently needs to accelerate its economic recovery (after COVID-19) – which is power”, he said.

Source: Trust