KOON TOWN, Todee District — For the last three years high school teacher Josephine Dennis had to use a flashlight to mark her student papers at night here in this rural settlement, just 70 kilometres from the nation’s capital, Monrovia. Dennis moved to Koon Town during the 2016-2017 academic year to teach. Hunched over a table, the 63-year-old struggled to see the words on the page.
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon with New Narratives
That all changed in October, 2023 when she bought a solar lighting system for the mud home she shares with five grandchildren. Dennis says it changed her life. “I enjoy using the light,” she says. “I can charge my phones and also I use the light to tutor my grandchildren at home. In the absence of it, it was very difficult and give me hard time to cope with the darkness.”
Solar energy has become a new normal in Liberia. As the electricity grid has grown slowly in the 20 years since the end of the civil wars, many people have given up on it ever reaching them. Only 30 percent of the population had electricity in 2021, according to the World Bank – one of the lowest in the West African region. For comparison, more than 70 percent of Ivorians have access to electricity. In Ghana the number is 86 percent.
In Liberia’s rural areas access to electricity falls to just 8 percent, or fewer than one in every ten people. The rural population relies heavily on solar energy delivered through solar panels that sit on roofs or other points soaking up Liberia’s abundant sun and turning it into power.
Experts say, in the absence of national grid, solar is the best electricity solution for rural dwellers. “This is one of the best for rural areas, at least you can charge your phone with it, you get lights in the house for the children to study, you can use it for security,” says Prince Nanlee Johnson, the former Director of the Ministry of Mines and Energy from 2016 to 2020, a graduate of the University of Cape Town and now a consultant and lecturer on energy.
Sun Star Green Energy has installed nearly 10,000 solar home systems and solar lamps for rural residents across Liberia since 2018 according to Karrus Hayes, Chief Executive Officer. Sun Star Green Energy installed Dennis’s solar system.
Hayes, who is also the Vice President of the Liberia Energy Access Practitioner Network (LEAP), a network of 62 private businesses operating in the renewable sector, says solar companies are playing a significant role in the energy sector.
“It’s helping a lot,” Hayes says. “If it hasn’t been for renewable companies, at this time, Liberia would have been darker than what it is now.”
Liberia’s electricity grid roll out has been plagued with problems. Even where it is available it is intermittent and poorly maintained. Experts say solar is the best option for reaching the most Liberians.
“That’s the most low hanging fruit,” says Nanlee Johnson. “The best option will be using solar to electrify the rural areas of Liberia.”
In 2016 the Sirleaf government put together the Rural Energy Strategy and Master Plan for 2030 with ambitious goals. The plan promised electricity for the population outside of Monrovia of 10% in 2020, 20% in 2025 and 35% in 2030, electrifying the largest cities and towns of the country first. All county capitals, health facility and secondary schools were to be electrified before 2025. With electricity reaching just 8 per cent of rural Liberians, the plan is far behind schedule.
The 10 largest settlements in each county were to be electrified by 2030 with minimum electrification of 15 per cent per county. There would be universal access to affordable solar lamps, efficient appliances and cook stoves. The focus would be on renewable energy including hydro and solar. Cooking gas would be available in all county capitals and efficiently produced charcoal widespread across the country. The Master Plan identified 92 projects and investments to electrify 265 000 homes and 1.34M people outside Monrovia by 2030.
The funding required was equally ambitious. Of the total bill of almost $US100m – just a quarter had been raised – mostly from the African Development Bank, the World Bank and European Union.
Stephen V. Potter, Sr., Deputy Executive Director of the Rural Renewable Energy Agency , concedes the plan is off track.
“We are proceeding as funds are made available with our development partners in partnership with the Government,” Potter says. But he claims the master plan’s goals for 2030 are achievable – if funding is made available. “That’s the precondition.”
Potter says the Government is yet to make financial contributions toward the master plan but he says he is optimistic that will soon change. “Though government has been stranded and had a tight hand on releasing funding for those projects, but it’s envisaged that in the near future funding will be made available.”
Potter detailed a number of projects that are already funded and are in various stages of implementation. A $US27million World Bank funded project in Lofa County – the Liberia Renewable Energy Access Project LIRELA – will provide energy to about 10,500 households, commercial entities, small and medium enterprises, within Lofa County. The European Union is providing support $US45m for the construction of electricity facilities in Buchanan, Greenville and Barclayville.
Potter says the Agency has disseminated small solar home systems that have reached about 100,000 households in rural Liberia. And the African Development Bank is also funding another project called Real, Renewable Energy for Electrification in Liberia which will build a hydropower plants near Ganta.
But critics say the government is moving far too slowly and they are skeptical the required funds will be raised. Johnson also said the infrastructure has not been built to support solar and mini hydro projects. He also doubts Liberian will be willing or able to pay the costs of solar energy.
“We have done several studies in terms of ability to pay, willingness to pay, so you can be willing to pay, but you don’t have the ability to pay,” Johnson says.
The cost for solar is high. Dennis paid $US40 upfront before the installation of the light and she pays $US25 every month for a four-month period to complete the total payment. While the electricity is free there will be ongoing maintenance costs. The average Liberian lives on about $US50 a month.
The government has tried to drive the costs of solar down. In May 2022 President issued an Executive Order suspending tariffs on solar products. But the savings didn’t reach consumers, according to Hayes.
“It was unfortunate that no one benefited from that because of the bureaucracy put on it.” Hayes also says the bad conditions of Liberia’s rural roads drives up the cost of delivering solar systems.
Whether by solar or through the electricity grid, the high cost of electricity is a major problem for Liberians. Lack of affordable electricity impacts Liberians at an individual level. It is also one of the major constraints to economic growth and poverty reduction say experts. Without electricity it is very difficult for manufacturers and industry to operate efficiently and create jobs. Lower productivity makes it impossible for Liberian businesses to compete with rivals in countries with more reliable access to electricity.
Experts have warned that afforded electricity access for all is essential to help people manage the impacts of climate change and reducing air pollution from burning fossil fuels that are exacerbating a range of health problems. Solar is a key part of the solutions.
“With this product we have no pollution,” says Hayes. “If you move to rural communities now, people are getting rid of generators because it pollutes the air, but with renewable energy it’s very clean, so it’s making a great impact.”
Environmental Protection Agency Executive Director Prof. Wilson Tarpeh agrees that increasing solar energy will help air pollution’s health impacts, and climate change.
“Solar energy is preferable, because it allows us to retain our carbon credit, it does not emit greenhouse gas, which will cause a problem for us, so the more solar that we can use, the better it will be,” Tarpeh says.
For now getting solar home system energy continues to be a challenge. Making it affordable and accessible remain a challenge for the Government and donars.
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of its Climate, Land and Water Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the American Jewish World Service. The funder had no say in the content.