Business Operation Models for Solar Home Systems (SHS)

Introduction

There are different ways of operating a solar home systems business.

Some questions to be considered by the business:

How to reach the costumers?

Which services are offered / integrated?

• Sales
• Installation
• Maintenance
• Provison of spare parts
• Recycling
• End-user training

Who supplies the business with the system components?

• Local manufacturers
• Import of components

Questions to be considered by the programme / project implementation organisation:

How can expanding a business to rural areas be made attractive?

• Incentives to establish businesses in rural areas.

The choice of a certain business structure / operation model also depends on the financing models offered to the costumers and grants and subsidies provided either to the costumers or the business itself.

Examples

Mali

In Mali communal solar battery charging stations (SBCS) are operated by private service providers, who run them on a fee-for-service basis. The income generated from the SBCS is supposed to cover the maintenance and upgrade costs of the SBCS themselves and the PV systems generating power for key public buildings (schools, health centres, town halls).

The private operators have begun to install solar home systems, sell solar lanterns and provide after-sales services that go beyond the ELCOM (Électrification Communale) intervention.

Electrifying key public services with solar energy, and linking it with electricity provision for private use, will improve living conditions of the population, besides strengthening local government’s performance and legitimacy.

The intervention of Energising Development was the first attempt to bridge the local service delivery gap by allowing energy as “the missing link”, to cross-fertilize with private sector development and decentralisation dynamics. So far, the experiences are encouraging: schools offer evening classes, women benefit from light during birth.

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