An Australian Research Council funded report co-authored by Sydney-based University of New South Wales (UNSW) and United Kingdom-headquartered charity SolarAid have said that the off-grid solar sector should do more to enhance its product repair initiatives.
The “State of Repair In the Off-Grid Solar Sector” report said 375 million solar energy kits have been sold and distributed to off-grid populations around the world by the formal off-grid solar sector since the early 2000s, and that more than 250 million of those are estimated to have fallen into disrepair.
According to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), 2% of Australia’s population live in off-grid locations, and use 6% of the country’s electricity.
SolarAid specialises in providing access to clean, safe solar lights to off-grid rural and hard to reach communities of sub-Saharan Africa, having distributed 2.3 million solar lights worldwide impacting 12.5 million people since 2006.
As the off-grid sector has grown globally, so has the array of products on offer, with an increasing range of technologies, including televisions and radios and productive-use appliances, like fridges and hot water pumps.
SolarAid and UNSW’s research found 90% of off-grid products are repairable and while about 90% of distributors already deliver some kind of repair service, the report recommends better strategies are needed to ensure access to spare parts, that repairable designs are integrated into products along with consumer protections and repair business models are tested, offering training and knowledge sharing.
SolarAid Director of Programmes and Partnerships Jamie McCloskey said an interesting insight from the report’s research was the disparity between distributors and manufacturers.
“When asked to rate the different facets of repair, manufacturers consistently rated their experiences higher. For example, when asked about ‘manufacturer support’, manufacturers rated this at 4.8 with distributors rating it at 2.6,” McCloskey said. “Accessing spares was ranked the highest of all challenges with long lead times and difficulties acquiring affordable parts altogether disrupting high-quality services, however, manufacturers acknowledged this challenge and the logistical challenge that comes with it.”
Other challenges reported were the cost of repairs, last mile logistics, training, restrictive product design and product tampering.
The report found the most common component that caused failure and repair challenges were batteries, making repair typically impossible but replacement can be an issue because of access and cost, but also when manufacturer designs are frequently updated, making parts redundant.
“While broken-down products create economic challenges for distributors, logistical challenges for manufacturers and planning challenges for a range of different actors in the sector, it is the households using solar products that ultimately feel the greatest brunt of broken-down products,” the report said.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.