In many countries of Africa, data shows that a high percentage of households cannot afford the electricity connection. Among developing regions, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly 45 per cent of people without electricity and the majority of those without electricity reside in rural areas.
In Ethiopia, a majority of people reside in rural areas and there is a high need of electrifications. Ethiopia currently has one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa and is also the second-most populous country on the continent with both factors making addressing energy needs a top priority. Most of Ethiopia’s current energy consumption comes mostly from biomass energy sources such as firewood and charcoal.
The Ministry of Water Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE) of Ethiopia in collaboration with several partners,including Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC), UNDP, the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) and The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), is implementing the GEF-financed project titled “Promoting Sustainable Rural Energy Technologies (RETs) for Household and Productive Uses”.
Yared Shumete Global Environment Facility (GEF) UNDP Project Manager said that specifically, the project encourages greater use of renewable energy technologies for household and productive uses in rural communities. Hundreds of thousand households are expected to benefit from the project.
The project complements the Ethiopian Energy Strategy, the Ethiopian Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy, and is aligned with the technology options derived from the Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) prepared by UNDP with Global Environmental Facility (GEF) support.
It is also fully consistent with the goals of the Sustainable Energy for all. The project aims to reduce Ethiopia’s energy-related CO2 emissions by promoting renewable energy and low greenhouse gas (GHG)-producing technologies as a substitute for fossil fuels and non-sustainable biomass utilization in the country.
He said that the project is an important way of addressing the challenge facing rural community according to Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy and the Ministry is striving to address the shortage of energy in collaboration with different partners through an alternative mechanism.
Zewge Worku Energy Efficiency and Conservation at the Ministry told The Ethiopian Herald that, to address the problem from its grassroots the ministry is doing its level best and the project is launched to deliver quality products for the consumers. To promote sustainable rural energy technologies for households and productive uses in Ethiopia, Pre-export verification of conformity procedures manual is prepared for imported solar home system and is going to be functional in the country soon.
Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVOC) is a conformity assessment procedure applied at the country of supply or export to ensure compliance of certain imported products with applicable Ethiopian Standards or approved specifications. The primary objective of conformity is to test the quality and capabilities of imported goods.
Among the primary challenges facing the community was using substandard products and the capabilities of testing materials are limited. Besides, the testing and assessment take time, during which goods are stored. Due to this reason, it will incur direct storage costs and increases working capital cost. Beyond this, it is even more difficult to track substandard products in the market, Zewge said.
Implementation of the system will help the Protection of consumer’s health, safety and the environment. Besides, it will block the importation of substandard and forged goods at the source. Moreover, the system will provide a cost-effective procedure for enforcement of standards and facilitate fair trade by preventing illicit goods, Zewge noted.
The
assessment program is applied to a solar home system at the respective
exporting countries, to ensure their compliance with the relevant
to minimize natural accidents and
disasters, it helps to save the life from flood and other hazards.
He also assured that he will continue planting and protecting trees up to his life and planting trees is more than a hobby for him, it is just destiny.
Planting trees should be the issue of all the efforts of the Ethiopian government to plant billions of trees in summer and millions in a day is appreciated and key for Ethiopia as its economy mainly depends on nature.
Just like Beyan many Ethiopians are also developing a habit of planting seedlings every summer and the Ethiopian government is working for that. On this summer Ethiopia plans to plant over four billion seedlings and so far planted over 3.5 billion.
On July 29/2019 Ethiopia has also broken the world record of planting more trees in a day by planting over 353 million trees where over 23 million people participated on the occasion.
Beyen Tesema
Promoting
sustainable energy technologies to address rural
energy shortage
Ethiopian standard. The company or an organization will be assumed which proofs the conformity of the products.
Zewge said that the appointed company shall then check the conformity proofs provided by the Applicant. Acceptable conformity proofs are satisfactory when test reports or certificates issued by an accredited body and issued to the relevant standard. After the conformity assessment is done and about the outcome, the trader shall be issued with a Certificate of Conformity or a non-conformity report.
The program is operated by appointed accredited third party inspection companies on behalf of Ministry Of Trade and Industry (MoTI). The certification is based on Ethiopian standards for a solar home system (ES 6087) and solar lantern (CES 140).
The importer or the supplier is expected to ensure that their product meets the regulation and standard requirements of Ethiopia before shipment by carrying out tests based on relevant Ethiopian Standards and obtaining the necessary Certificate of Conformity (CoC) from the appointed PVoC Agents for the products subject to the PVoC program.
The partners are National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), Ethiopian Standard Agency (ESA), Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI). Each certification route fee should be determined by MoTI and appointed PVoC Partners agreement.
Asres Woldegiorgis Alternative Energy Technology Development and Promotion Director (AETDPD) at the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (WoIE) said that rural energy technology is expected to bring a vital change in the country and with the support of modern technology the system is at the good step in the country.
By nature, the project targets rural areas and different challenges were faced in providing the service in respective areas. Among the challenge facing the community were lack of infrastructural facilities and importing substandard products because of a lack of know-how of the society about the quality of the products. So the benefit of the PVoC is to protect consumers and local industry and reduce fraudulent transactions, fight against counterfeit products, prevent unfair competitions, Asres says.
Beyond controlling the substandard products PVOC program encourages serious importers to select reliable suppliers which can provide available conformed products at a reduced price he stressed.
The government has given due attention to facilitating the service across the country and access to rural energy shows improvement from time to time. Currently, societies need to use modern energy technology is high. But there is a shortage of foreign currency to provide this rural energy source for rural areas and there is also society’s awareness to use this alternative energy, he noted.
The Ethiopian Herald August 3/2019
BY HAILE DEMEKE
