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When power goes out in the rural town of Soroti in eastern Uganda, store manager Hussein Samsudin can only hope it won't go on so long it spoils his fresh goods.
Another shop owner, Richard Otekat, 37, has to pay a neighbour hourly to use his generator during blackouts as he can't afford to buy one himself, while others simply go without.
However residents of the town, surrounded by thatched huts, rivers and grasslands, hope a new solar plant, which went into operation last week, will bring an end to their electricity woes.
The $19 million (18-million euro), 33-acre solar plant—the first of its kind in East Africa—can produce 10 megawatts of power that is fed into Uganda's national power grid.
The project is crucial as Uganda seeks new ways to bring electricity to the 80 percent of its 40 million-strong population that does not have access to power.
Mud hut, solar panels.
(Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Thursday December 22 2016, @06:50PM
(Score: 1) by Francis on Thursday December 22 2016, @07:23PM
This is why crank powered radios are a thing. They were originally invented for people that aren't connected to the grid, virtually anybody can crank the radio for a few minutes and get sound out of it and with that at least a basic understanding of what's going on in the country.
But, it definitely is interesting that the guy who gave up some of his land for the plant appears to not be benefiting from it directly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 22 2016, @07:57PM
> However he is one of several who will be unable to access the power from the plant, as he is not connected to the national electricity grid.
Even if he isn't on the grid, what about the rest of his town? Surely some parts of the town have been electrified that were not previously. If a school or a church is electrified that benefits the whole community. Even if just a store is electrified and can now run refrigeration and make ice, that's valuable. Or water pumps, electrified water pumps can make water a lot more easily available.
I don't know if any of that happened. I'm just saying there is more than one way for electricity to help a village. The US went through a similar process of electrifying the most valuable buildings first (as well as the homes of the rich).
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday December 22 2016, @10:44PM
Robert Otala, 50, gave up some of his land for the solar plant, and now lives *300 metres* from the shiny panels soaking up the sun. "It is good. It has come to develop the area," he said.
However he is one of several who will be unable to access the power from the plant, as he is not connected to the *national electricity grid*.
Shouldn't this be accessible as part of a village-maintainable, potentially isolated grid? Maybe village-level deployment of the necessary technologies for power distribution -- layout, trenching, wiring -- is the next step, and one that requires more politically-charged (in the small scale) whole-village cooperation?