Top Solar News

Rex Solar, a Dar es Salaam, Tanzania based solar contracting company along with its Partner, Solaric, a US-Bangladesh joint Solar innovations company has introduced a new generation of Solar Home Systems for East Africa.

The Joint Venture, announced on March 3, 2015, will connect 1.5 million homes in East Africa over the span of 5 years. The venture will also help create upwards of 2,500 jobs says Mr. Francis Kibisha, Managing Director of Rex Energy.

The 3rd generation of Solar Home Systems, developed by Solaric, has removed all the limitations of older generation systems, and at the same time, has decreased the capital and operational cost compared to older systems.

Currently, Previous generation of Solar Home Systems (1G and 2G) are costly low 12 Volt systems that are extremely limited in its capabilities as they are limited to only lighting merely a couple of light bulbs.

Furthermore, the users of these older systems consider them to be too expensive for its limited capabilities as they do not make significant improvement to their lives.

3G-Solar introduces the first high (125V) Voltage systems that go beyond lighting by enabling users to have unrestricted energy access that, for the first time, allows them to not only power lights, but the patented inverter-less technology that combines DC-DC converter + Charge controller + LED Driver, allows users to power any electronic appliance they desire such as laptops, fans, and TV.

Founder and Managing Director of Solaric, Didar Islam, says "It is an affordable service which will also help lift people of Africa from one stage of development to another.

It is not just about turning on the lights, but opening up new economic opportunities that rural people were once limited to due to not having adequate and high quality energy access that the population can use that actually makes a difference in their lives"

Users who already have an older generation system can keep their old PV panel and battery and only pay USD $100 to upgrade to 3G-Solar with the addition of Solarics Optimizer, the heart of the technology.

With the upgrade, Solaric also includes a fan, and light bulb. The payment mode will allow the customers to pay a deposit upfront and the remaining balance over a period of 12 months which further makes the systems more affordable for the users.

To date, only a little over 20% of Tanzanias population has gained access to electricity with other locations including 23% of Kenyans, and only 11% of Rwandans; the majority of people are still using costly and unhealthy forms of energy for cooking and lighting.

Extending the National Grid to many parts of the country, including rural areas, is not financially or economically feasible and come with many challenges which the use of small Solar Home Systems can help mitigate the need to extend any grid.

The Principal Energy Officer, Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Mr Paul Kiwele said, "rural electrification remains among the government's top priorities because it is likely to contribute immensely in transforming living conditions of the people".

There is a tremendous increase in the focus on rural electrification but a lack of available appropriate technology that is both affordable and at the same time meets all the needs of rural users that truly make a significant improvement in their lives. Solaric has finally developed a solar home solution specialized for rural users that has addressed all the issues in making rural electrification feasible and truly makes an impact on their lives by providing services that go beyond just lighting.

The systems have already proven highly successful in other areas such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, Malaysia, and more.

3G Solar is the first solution to provide rural homes with unrestricted energy access and will help close the gap on how off-grid users in rural Africa and users that have grid connection use electricity.