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 MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday December 22 2016, @10:21PM
Much of the us is cancelling solar subsidies, but those subsidies are continuing in other countries. The price per kilowatt will continue to drop as the economies of scale grow.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]