Renewable energy slowly taking over electricity demand in Malawi’s Balaka Rural District

The use of Solar Powered Energy has gained popularity among people in Balaka Rural District, Malawi, in the midst of electricity challenges country wide. Through a project that Community Energy Malawi with support from Scottish government is implementing in the district, it has shown that more people in the rural areas are now safe in using solar power energy than those using electricity as the solar energy is reliable. The organization is working on helping the District Council include energy in their plans in education, health and agriculture sectors to reduce the challenges that are faced in these systems in rural areas. In an interview, Community Energy Malawi District Officer for Balaka, Louis Yona said there are gaps in rural areas whereby workers shun living in their allocated places because they want to stay in places where there is electricity, a development that affects their work. Yona also said most people in rural areas fail to access quality services due to lack of electricity if the services require that, an issue that can be saved if there is solar powered energy. One of the challenges that Yona also said is affecting the community is the lack of energy systems in rural schools as students fail to study during the night. “We believe that in the modern day we cannot talk of development without any sort of energy power. This is why we are here with our project to complement the District Council in their plans at the same time helping them provide good services. We noticed that when planning their activities like building infrastructure in the rural areas like schools, health facilities and even agriculture offices there is no element of electricity which in the end affect the workers as they choose to work from town. So in our project we have trained officers from these sectors so that during the course of their work they should be including the energy element to it and also include it in their budgeted plans”, said Yona. Programs Manager for the project, Damien Frane said the project which started in 2018 has been a success except for a few challenges registered in the wake of COVID-19 and cyclones. However Frane said the presence of fake products and equipment is a direct challenge that is dragging the adoption of the project as most people have lost trust and faith in using solar energy. ‘When going to the community you find that people have lost faith in solar products as the products that they buy last only for two to three months and so it is not easy to convince them but we are still working with them to make sure they adopt this type of energy”, Frane assured us. He also said they are now working with Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) and Malawi Beaural of Standards to eliminate the problem. The project which is called Rural Energy Access Through Social Enterprise and Enterprise and Decentralisation has been running since 2018 and will be phasing out in March 2023