- 1.6 billion people globally live without access to a public electricity facility – with 589 million in Africa.
- As of 2009, grid connections in Africa stood at just 35 %.
- Of Africa on-grid population, more than a third experience frequent blackout and are considered “under electrified”.
- African poor rural households and small businesses currently spend $10 billion on lighting annually, growing to over $12 billion by 2015.
- African households who are off-grid spend $4.4 billion per year on kerosene (or 54 % of their spend on lighting).
- The market penetration for solar portable lights in Africa is likely to increase from 0.5 % to 8 % by 2015.
- The manufacturing cost of solar portable light is set to drop by 40% by 2015.
- Solar portable lanterns could address the lighting needs of 49 % of the off-grid households in Africa (or 54 million households).
- New features of solar portable lights include multiple recharge options (AC, hand crank dynamos, battery chargers), battery life notification, flexible mounting features, increased durability and mobile phone chargers.
- Lack of appropriate financing is the biggest challenge to scaling the solar lighting market and industry, according to 27 % of the surveyed market players. Other barriers include high taxes and tariff burden, market spoilage by sub-standards products, low consumer awareness and ineffective distribution and servicing.
