Night Fishing with Solar Powered LED Lights on Lake Tanganyika

Night Fishing with Solar Powered LED Lights on Lake Tanganyika

Presenter: Robert Aitken, (Restio Energy, South Africa)

Overview

Kigoma is located in the western extent of Tanzania, on the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika. Kigoma Town and its rural surrounds are not linked to the national electricity grid, having instead to rely on small diesel-based mini-grid systems reticulated through the urban village centres. Fishing is an important economic activity in the Kigoma region, focused on Lake Tanganyika. The fishermen fish at night using pressurized kerosene lanterns to attract fish to the surface and their nets. This has important environmental as well as financial consequences for the lake, fishermen, local community and wider region. As part of a solar photovoltaic market development project funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation, solar-powered LED lighting systems were designed and supplied to the fishermen on financed terms. This paper looks at how this was done, including technical design aspects, financial feasibility and commercial sustainability; as well as the eventual outcomes and the greater opportunity presented by this intervention.

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