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Sudan: Sun Sheds Brighter Light on Energy Needs

Sudan, a sun-belt country, is turning to the sun to bring electricity into homes, schools, hospitals, and workplaces once lit with kerosene or fueled by firewood, charcoal, and other environmentally harmful fuels.

The use of solar energy, especially photovoltaic (PV) technology, to help mitigate Sudan’s electricity problem is not entirely new. However, despite having received governmental support since the establishment of the Institute of Solar Energy and Related Environmental Studies in 1970, PV was not widely known in the country.

A recently-concluded project supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) took the use of photovoltaic (PV) systems in Sudan to a new level. The project was developed and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to help meet growing energy demands in 13 rural and semi-urban communities in an environmentally sustainable manner.

The project has resulted in the following changes.

  • Over 400 schools, 800 health services, 250 social centers, 100 women development centers, and other social services are using PV systems
  • Model schools have seen improved exam results attributable to greater opportunities for study thanks to lit classrooms; an added benefit is that some schools have invested in computers now that they have reliable power
  • About 45, 000 household are using PV systems
  • Project has contributed to improvements in the areas of policy, financing, awareness raising and technical capacity building. For example, the 2004 national development budget exempted all components required to manufacture PV systems from import duties and the value added tax. This provision alone is expected to cut costs by as much as 40 percent.

The idea behind the project is to create a commercial market for PV technology to the point where it may soon become feasible for PV systems to meet the growing unmet demand for electricity in towns and semi-urban communities, with the consumers meeting the full cost. In the introduction of the PV technology as a solution to energy problems in a developing country, the challenge is usually to help remove barriers to the development of a market where solar systems are bought and sold just as with any other normal commercial transaction. The GEF and other organizations experienced in this field believe that without the removal of such market barriers, a solar project achieves little or nothing of long-term value.

In Sudan, market barriers in market infrastructure, public policy, information and awareness, technical capability and know-how, financial arrangements and institutional capacity have hindered the growth of solar energy. The project and other initiatives are demonstrating the value of PVs in meeting energy needs, and the Government now actively supports PV policies. Thanks to this support and the increasing awareness about the social and economic potential of solar technology, a new Solar Energy Act was put forward by the National Energy Committee of the National Assembly.

To reduce financial risks, the GEF project has collaborated with the Sudanese Social Development and Savings Bank (SSDSB) to create a system of guarantees as a mechanism to encourage the issue of credit for solar systems, especially for home use. High rates of loan repayments—between 87 and 92 percent—are a measure of the success of this effort. As a result, in 2004 the Sudanese Agricultural Bank agreed to provide credit in five additional towns where SSDSB has no branches.

There are also efforts to bring about direct economic benefits by demonstrating to farmers how PV technology can improve their livelihoods. PV pumps are likely to be an improvement over the diesel pumps used on thousands of small farms along the Blue Nile and the Nile River as well.

As with all GEF projects, the PV project in Sudan contributes not only to the development of families and communities but also to the achievement of global environmental objectives. For the project to be meaningful in this regard its success will have to be replicated over and over again in Sudan, and elsewhere in Africa. A measure of the project’s effectiveness is that UNDP and the Government of Sudan are now investing $1.2 million to expand the project for another two years and to five other states in southern Sudan.

The GEF thanks Frank Campbell for contributing this story.