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

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

Mwikali is among the many residents of Lukenya in Machakos County, east of Nairobi, who have 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, added to the product line in February, has a solar panel and a portable battery that also controls a lighting unit and contains a socket for charging cell phones.

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

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

The solar television works even when 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 used for lighting and watching television simultaneously.

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

Leapfrogging the grid

The whole M-KOPA kit, like the television set, costs about $530, and customers make a short 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 too expensive. how to watch netflix with friends online would took him years to cover 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 just how in switching to green energy use.

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

According to check here , the company has sold over 6,000 television sets, and plans to scale up production to meet up rising demand.

The company hopes to attain 3 million households out of the 5 million yet to get in touch 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

Individuals are already identifying improvements they wish to see in the next generation of solar products. Mwikali wants enhanced battery life to expand how much time she may use her TV, because the current four hours is not 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 when the solar battery runs out in the evenings.

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

The company is currently working out what to do with the solar batteries when their five-year lifespan ends, and contains engaged another business to recycle the batteries to greatly help conserve the surroundings, Moore said.

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





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