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Solar-Powered Televisions Brighten Homes in Rural Kenya
MACHAKOS, KENYA?
Violet Mwikali's new television has not just brought entertainment to her home. It has ushered in peace, too.

"The whining has stopped now. I was placed on the spot for a while as my two children went to the neighbours' to watch television," Mwikali said as she adjusted her new 16-inch solar-powered television.

website is among the many residents of Lukenya in Machakos County, east of Nairobi, who've bought televisions from M-KOPA Solar, a Nairobi-based company that sells solar-powered products in places not linked to the national energy grid.

The digital flat-screen television, put into the merchandise line in February, has a solar power and a portable battery that also controls a lighting unit and has a socket for charging mobile phones.

Margaret Nduge, another solar TV owner, said she had long resigned herself to never being installed to the national electricity grid. Before buying the solar kit, Nduge used a generator for power, but it was smoky and noisy, and the cost of fuel was a drain on her behalf finances.

"My neighbors didn't believe that I possibly could afford to power my house silently," she said.

The solar television works even though there is little if any sun, she said, allowing her to maintain with her favorite gospel channels and the national news. The battery lasts for four hours when useful for lighting and watching television simultaneously.

Television reaches less than a third of Kenya's adult population every day, with the others lacking power or a TV set, according to 2015 data from the Kenya Audience Research Foundation cited by M-KOPA.

Leapfrogging the grid

The complete M-KOPA kit, like the tv, costs about $530, and customers make an initial payment as high as $79, followed by installments of as little as $1 a day.

Kit owner Raphael Makau said the $148 minimum fee levied upfront by the Kenya Power and Lighting Company for connecting a house to the national grid was very costly. It would took him years to afford usage of electricity were it not for the solar kit, he said.

Makau also likes the capability of making his daily payment to M-KOPA through his mobile phone.

Jesse Moore, M-KOPA's chief executive, believes poorer nations will lead the way in switching to green energy use.

"In Africa, (we have been going) directly from limited energy connections straight to renewable," he said.

According to Moore, the business has sold over 6,000 tv's, and plans to scale up production to meet rising demand.

The company hopes to attain 3 million households from the 5 million yet to be connected to the grid in Kenya, Moore told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Target areas are mainly rural because many residents there are poor and need affordable energy products. Allowing payments via mobile money transfer helps attract customers, Moore added.

Better batteries

Consumers are already identifying improvements they wish to see within the next generation of solar products. Mwikali wants enhanced battery life to expand the volume of time she may use her TV, as the current four hours isn't enough on her behalf family's needs.

Makau echoed the suggestion, saying he is sometimes forced to utilize backups such as for example kerosene lanterns once the solar battery runs out in the evenings.

M-KOPA is wanting to raise the quality of the solar television sets and enhance their features, Moore said. But he warned the purchase price may not come down as the cost is already low considering the capabilities of the whole system.

The company is now working out how to proceed with the solar batteries when their five-year lifespan ends, and contains engaged another business to recycle the batteries to help conserve the environment, Moore said.

read more -KOPA is hoping to expand access to its solar televisions to Tanzania and Uganda, and to start manufacturing all of the components in Kenya. More solar products for the indegent are also in the offing, Moore said, declining to elaborate.





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