Green People's Energy for Africa - Knowledge Hub - Productive Use

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Green People's Energy for Africa
Knowledge Hub

Productive Use

This topic pages describes how productive use equipment can improve productivity and income of rural communities. Find out more about GBE's threefold approach to improve PUE conditions below.

Table of Contents

I. Overview
II. Case Studies
III. Publications
IV. Countries

I. Overview

While large cities are usually fully electrified, 80% of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa living without electricity live in rural areas with low population density. Most work in agriculture with low productivity, amongst others due to energy poverty. Providing access to energy through productive use of energy (PUE) appliances can improve the economic development of local enterprises. For example, solar water pumps can potentially increase the annual income of farmers by 50% or more, in comparison to rainfed irrigation. By using solar powered irrigation, the harvest of crops is more reliable and independent of rainfall. Another important PUE appliance in rural areas is solar refrigeration, which can be used by rural enterprises to preserve milk or harvest.

Traditionally, the alternative to stand-alone solar appliances or mini-grids would be diesel generators, but they are costly in operation and emit CO2. As rural populations in SSA gain access to energy, they have the possibility to avoid – or leapfrog – the use of diesel-generators and fossil fuels. However, smallholder farms are often unaware of the benefits of solar technology devices. and even if they are sensitised to the advantages of renewables, they lack access to finance. In addition, solar companies have been reluctant to extend their supply chains from urban centers to rural areas, making it difficult for rural populations to access PV-appliances.


Green People’s Energy for Africa promotes energy access and productive use of energy by following a threefold approach and providing support for solar (PUE) companies, improving framework conditions and supporting end-users. Activities include the following:

PUE companies

  • Promoting PUE technologies in rural areas through results-based financing (RBF) programmes with solar companies, i.e. incentivizing the sales of systems to rural customers
  • Professionalizing local solar companies through business development support
  • Training technical staff of solar companies in operating and maintaining solar systems

Framework conditions

  • Assessing the quality of PUE appliances and making their quality transparent for customers with the VeraSol database
  • Implementing pilot installations for demonstration purposes and awareness raising among political partners and stakeholders

End-users

  • Awareness-raising campaigns in rural areas, sensitization of rural enterprises on the economic potentials of PUE
  • Business development support to rural enterprises incl. energy assessments to understand the business case of acquiring and using PUE appliances
  • Supporting access to finance e.g. by establishing guarantee funds or offering incentive payments for microfinance institutions (MFIs) so rural populations can buy solar technologies
  • Supporting community-based approaches by building the capacities of communities and cooperatives to jointly purchase, operate and maintain PUE appliances

II. Case Studies

The following case studies and project sheets illustrate the practical implementation of the three PUE pillars within the GBE project scope. They further showcase different examples of PUE equipment types and how to organise their distribution sustainably.

  • Link to Projects
  • Link to Case Studies
  • Link to KPF Facthseets
  • etc...

III. Publications

The GBE Technical Knowledge Products are designed to share the knowledge and learnings about the topics gathered during the implementation and to make them accessible for practicioners. The following knowledge products outline the latest approches to PUE projects at the time of project implementation as well as learnings and recommendations from the GBE projects.

  • TKP

IV. Countries

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