Solar Power and Regenerative Agriculture in Burma

In February, my assistant, Thida Win, and I attended a conference on mini-grids in Nay Pyi Daw, the new capital of Myanmar (Burma). The conference was hosted by the World Bank Group and participants came from many different countries to contribute their unique perspective and experience. Prior to attending the conference, I knew what mini-grids were, though I had never worked on one. In fact they are quite rare and are more of an emerging technology, especially when supplied from a renewable energy source. In course of the conference I was to learn not just the technical challenges of mini-grids, but also the political and financial aspects,which are no less daunting.

A mini-grid is a type of electrical distribution system that serves remote communities, where the national grid is unlikely to arrive for some years to come. Typically, a mini-grid is used to supply power to an island, where the costs and technical difficulties make grid power unfeasible. But it can also be used to serve remote mountain communities, that perhaps have access to a hydropower source. In terms of scale, mini-grids are located between the national grid and the individual solar home system. A mini grid can supply of village of several hundred people and can be powered by a diesel generator or by renewable source such as solar or hydro.

The conference participants were a mixture of technical people, financial people and policy people - each with their own perspective. The government of Myanmar has a stated policy of electricity for all by 2030 and it is hoped that mini-grids can play a significant role in achieving this goal. During the first few days of the conference we heard from our colleagues from Africa about their successes and failures in rolling out these systems in their home countries. What at first sounds like an ideal solution - distributed renewable energy for remote areas, masks a plethora of complex problems encompassing technical, political and financial issues. A short list of the difficulties can be summarized in the following questions: Who pays for the installation of the mini-grid? Who owns the asset, once it is built? What will be the cost of the power to the consumer? What will happen to the mini-grid when the national grid eventually arrives? Who will pay for the training of service personnel to keep these systems running?

Clearly, the installation of mini-grids is beyond the remit of Solar Roots, but I was very happy to learn first-hand about the policy and progress of electrification in Myanmar. The new national electricity policy has a three-pronged approach that will be rolled out over the next 13 years. First, the national grid will be extended from its existing locations, mini-grids will be built in areas where the national grid is 10 miles or 10 years away and small solar home systems will cover people in extremely remote areas. The major challenges include: Who will pay for all this? Can the technical personnel be trained in time? Is Myanmar a lucrative enough market to attract foreign investment? Looking at the brake-neck development that has happened in certain areas in the last 3 years, one is tempted to conclude that the national grid will be extended to serve the needs of industry near the big cities, but the remote villages will languish with few and inferior electrical services. Solar Roots might be able to support the deployment of solar homes systems by assisting with training personnel, but that would have to fit with our mission to help the poorest and most disadvantaged citizens.

One highlight of the five-day conference was a trip to visit two existing mini-grids - one supplied by solar and one supplied by a diesel generator. The solar installation had been recently completed and served around 50 households. Featuring a meter that limited peak usage to100 watts and daily usage to 50 watt hours, this was a very modest system, that gave enough power for 2 lights, phone charging and a very small DVD player. The monthly cost was also modest - about $2 per month. In theory, this system was "grid-ready", meaning that it could be connected to the national grid when it arrives. The installation was done by a solar company and financed by the department of rural development. The second mini-grid had been in service for about 3 years and was powered by a diesel generator. Here the quality of the distribution lines was sadly lacking and downright dangerous in places. The voltage and frequency of the supply was way out of specification and service was limited to 3 hours per night. Cost to the consumer was higher and service was poorer. This system is typical of several private or community run systems that I have seen in Myanmar.

All-in-all, the conference was a great learning experience for us. Although Solar Roots can only play a limited role in the electrification of the entire country, I was delighted to participate in the exchange of information. It was also an opportunity to renew old friendships and make new ones in the small world that is the renewable energy sector in Myanmar.

I apologize that I am unable to include any photographs with this report as the Internet is too slow in Myanmar to upload them.

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Many thanks,