• A UK-based charity has installed solar photovoltaic systems in all of all 9,000 households of a rural village in Malawi, Kasakula.
• The nonprofit has trained local technicians to maintain the systems — and says it retrieves damaged or retired batteries or other components for now, as no system for safely recycling these exists in Malawi.
• Off-grid solar quickly and affordably provides light to the community. Image courtesy of Kondwani Jere/SolarAid.

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LILONGWE — Four years ago, a U.K.-based charity, SolarAid, set out to provide solar-powered electricity to every home in Kasakula, a village around 90 kilometers, or 56 miles, from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.

The project was aimed at demonstrating the potential for distributing and maintaining renewable energy in rural Africa. Today, SolarAid says it has installed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in all of the nearly 9,000 households in the village.

Kasakula has a population of just over 20,000. Most of the village’s inhabitants grow crops like maize, beans and cassava for their own consumption. Like many other settlements of this size, it boasts of two public secondary schools, 10 primary schools and a health center. It also has various businesses including barbershops, video showrooms, and shops selling assorted groceries.

And, also like many other settlements of this size across Africa, few Kasakula homes are connected to the national electricity grid. Residents here, like many of their counterparts in other rural parts of the continent, rely on paraffin lamps or candles for light after dark. This has also meant traders in the area’s open market needed to shut down earlier.

When it launched, SolarAid’s project aimed to make bright, safe, affordable energy available to every household.

“We chose Kasakula because it is a remote and low-income community,” Brave Mhonie, the charity’s general manager in Malawi, told Mongabay by phone. ”We wanted to test the viability of our model in such a setting, and see if it was scalable to other parts of the country.”

Solar-powered lights afford residents more hours to work or study. Image courtesy of Kondwani Jere/SolarAid.

How it works

Each installation consists of a rooftop solar panel, a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery hub with USB outlets to charge cellphones, as well as a tube light and two LED lamps. Customers have the option to choose an expansion kit for appliances that draw more power, such as television sets and hair clippers.

The solar system components are mostly made in China, and, according to Mhonie, have a lifespan of three to five years.

SolarAid trained 50 local people to carry out the installations, and to provide subsequent maintenance and customer service for users.

Each household makes a weekly payment, equivalent to around 40 cents/week, for access to power from their system. When a customer falls to make payment, the system shuts itself off.

SolarAid’s model, which they term “energy as a service,” also means customers can call on the nonprofit’s technicians for maintenance of their systems.

The group says if it collects 80% of possible revenue from Kasakula households with PV systems installed, this will cover ongoing operational and maintenance costs of the equipment and its team of service technicians.

Before installation, the importance of protecting the PV systems from theft or damage is explained, and the members of the community service team stay in contact with residents after the system has been set up.

If Kasakula residents wanted to buy roughly equivalent PV and battery systems for themselves, they would need to stump up anywhere up to $150 — a steep charge for farming households that, for the most part, make less than $200 in cash income in a year. That’s money that also has to pay for essentials like medicine or school uniforms.

“The project is sustainable and scalable. The payments from the homes are used to pay our local customer representatives, as well as to recover the system cost to ensure that the project rolls to other rural areas,” Dalitso Kudala, SolarAid’s supervisor for the Kasakula project, told Mongabay.

The project’s initial funding came from the U.K.-based Turner Kirk Trust, with later support coming from the DOEN Foundation (established by the Dutch Postcode Lottery), the Switzerland-based Good Energies Foundation, and the World Bank.

A SolarAid technician installing a solar home system in Kasakula, Malawi. Image courtesy of Kondwani Jere/SolarAid.

Disposal and sustainability

Malawi currently doesn’t have regulations for the safe disposal of used PV system components. As is the case in many other parts of Africa, a cottage industry has sprung up to recycle or remanufacture used lead-acid batteries in particular.

In 2024, researchers studying the product life cycle of solar systems in Malawi identified lead-acid batteries as the most environmentally damaging component of solar home systems, with informal remanufacturing of these vital components releasing dangerous levels of lead into the environment, threatening the health of recyclers and people or animals near their workshops.

The researchers warned that with most solar home batteries needing to be replaced within three years of installation, Malawi needs to adopt and enforce regulations on minimum standards for battery quality and create systems for the proper disposal of used batteries.

Jones Ntaukira, managing director of Zuwa Energy, one of the major players in the commercial home solar system sector in Malawi, downplayed the risk of environmental harm from used components. He told Mongabay that that all licensed and registered companies supplying solar home systems had strategies for disposal of used PV panels and batteries.

While he didn’t provide details, he said licensed companies like Zuwa keep track of their customers to ensure responsible disposal of broken-down batteries, accusing wildcat operators of ignoring this. “The batteries that are irresponsibly disposed of are from the open market and are usually smuggled into the country. We are fending [off] competition from these low-quality systems by offering flexible payment packages for our customers,” he said.

SolarAid’s systems rely on LFP batteries, which are far less toxic than lead-acid batteries, and more durable. Recycling or remanufacturing them after they reach the end of their lifespan isn’t yet possible in Malawi, but Mhonie said SolarAid is focused on maintenance to extend battery life while preparing for that future.

“Old batteries are being collected and kept for potential recycling in the future. We will collaborate with those setting up recycling business,” he told Mongabay via email.

Off-grid solar quickly and affordably provides light to the community. Image courtesy of Kondwani Jere/SolarAid.

Impact and challenges

SolarAid has overcome several obstacles to bring the benefits of home solar systems — already widely enjoyed by wealthier households — to rural homes where cash is in short supply. Mhonie said one of the major obstacles to wider adoption of home solar systems in Malawi is the difficulty in finding systems tailored for the low-income customers that SolarAid’s “energy as a service” model is aimed at.

“To have a successful project like that at Kasakula, adequate financing is required to import standard systems in [large] volumes to reach full scale,” he said. Expanding the program to other areas will require overcoming limitations on investment and on access to foreign exchange to pay for imported components.

Mhonie, who is also the president of Malawi’s Renewable Energy Industries Association, said the project at Kasakula offers a beacon for providing sustainable and affordable electricity to rural communities.

Banner image: Installing a solar PV system in Kasakula, Malawi. Image courtesy of Kondwani Jere/SolarAid.

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Citation:
Kinally, C., Antonanzas-Torres, F., Podd, F., & Gallego-Schmid, A. (2024). Life cycle assessment of solar home system informal waste management practices in Malawi. Applied Energy, 364, 123190. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.123190

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