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Semantic Sandbox
Introduction
Productive End Use (PEU) of energy refers to activities that increase income or productivity in different sectors such as agriculture (e.g. irrigation, grain milling), manufacturing (e.g. carpentry, welding, and sewing), and the service sector (e.g. restaurants using electric lights, sound systems, refrigerators, mobile charging stations). PicoPV systems are basically small systems with a power output of 1-10W, mainly used for lighting and running small appliances such as charging mobile phones, playing radio etc. This article looks into the potential of using picoPV for PEU activities.
Productive Use of PicoPV
PicoPV products themselves do not result in productive end use activities as they have small capacity. However, they indirectly help to promote productive end use activities. For example:
- PicoPV increases the time for income generation activities by task shifting. With better quality light available for longer time at night, the business can run longer at night, resulting in higher income.
- By using picoPV products, people can save on kerosene and candles. Assuming that a picoPV product has a three year life cycle, a household can save up to 86% of their previous energy expenses for kerosene and mobile charging. The saved amount can be invested in other income generating activities. The government will also save the money that they spend on kerosene subsidies and can be used for other productive activities.
- Initially picoPV products were designed to provide lighting services but with the emergence of technologies, the picoPV products now run small appliances such as mobile phone charging, energy efficient based LED-Television, radio etc. Services such as mobile phone charging can be a source of income.
- The picoPV industry have also created additional 500000 jobs only in the ECOWAS region.
Conclusion
In general, picoPV systems are too small for productive uses but they do help to support ongoing productive use activities. However, in future, with the emergence of new technologies, we could expect more PEU activities based on PicoPV.
