Scaling up smart solar home systems in East Africa through improved breakdown of energy consumption, business models and multiplicity of energy use.

在撒哈拉以南非洲，65%的人口(37%在城市，80%以上在农村地区)生活在电网[1]之外，不得不依靠蜡烛、煤油或木材等污染燃料照明和做饭。传统的能源电网系统未能为城乡市场提供能源通道。这些市场目前由各种分散的产品提供服务，然而，非洲各地的城市和农村社区越来越多地使用融资太阳能家庭系统作为传统能源的替代品。这项研究将建立在BBOXX[2]创新工作的基础上，该公司是一家总部位于伦敦的公司，设计、制造、分销和资助创新的即插即用太阳能系统，以改善整个非洲的能源获取。自2014年以来，BBOXX已经在卢旺达的城乡环境中制造和部署了超过6.5万个“智能”(受监控)太阳能家庭系统。因此，这项研究将解决以下目标：评估客户使用量如何随时间变化以及这种变化的社会经济原因，可以使用传统的社会经济调查方法进行研究。评估消费者对不同家用电器的能源使用情况(基于2000户家庭的数据)考虑不同家用电器的使用情况建模能源消费的未来趋势，以评估市场需求。探索能量堆积的概念，而不是消费者通过线性能量阶梯进步的传统智慧。评估用于家庭和生计目的的能源利用的多样性。使用调查中的现有数据描述家庭时间使用和能源需求之间的关系，并确定家庭能源需求的灵活性程度，根据当前和未来的能源消费模式开发扩大能源规模的商业模式，以最大限度地提高能源需求的灵活性，以支持能源效率和负担能力

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 65% of the population (37% in urban and over 80% in rural areas) live off the grid [1] and have to rely on polluting fuels such as candles, kerosene or wood for lighting and cooking. The traditional energy grid systems have failed to provide energy access to the peri-urban and rural markets. Those markets are currently serviced by a variety of decentralised products, however there is a growing use of financed solar home systems in peri-urban and rural communities across Africa as a replacement for traditional sources of energy. This research will build on the innovative work of BBOXX[2], a London based company who designs, manufactures, distributes and finances innovative plug & play solar systems to improve access to energy across Africa. Since 2014, BBOXX has manufactured and deployed more than 65,000 "smart" (monitored) solar home systems in peri-urban and rural settings of Rwanda. This research will therefore address the following objectives: Assess how customer usage changes over time and the socio-economic reasons for this change, which could be studied using traditional socio-economic survey methods. Assess breakdown of consumer usage of energy for different appliances (based on data from 2000 households) Model future trends in energy consumption considering different appliances usage to assess market demand. Explore the concept of energy stacking versus the conventional wisdom of consumers progressing through a linear energy ladder. Evaluate multiplicity of use of energy for domestic and livelihood purposes. To characterise the relationship between household time-use and energy demand using available data from survey and determine the extent of flexibility in household energy demand Develop business models for scale up of energy based on current and future energy consumption patterns that maximise flexibility across the energy demand to support energy efficiency and affordability