Improved energy access contributes to creating new product and service
opportunities, improve the efficiency and viability of existing activities, and reduce
the opportunity costs associated with ineffective forms of energy. Many modern
energy services will also save households significant sums of money which can be
re-invested into other development needs.
Table 2: Energy Services and Income opportunities.2
Energy Service
New income
opportunities
Improvement of
Existing
activities
Opportunity Cost
saving
Lighting
Sale of improved
lighting products. Micro
enterprises at home
possible through
improved lighting, street
lighting maintenance
Later opening of
shops and cafes
Creating opportunity for
night time activities,
improved health / financial
savings from reduced
dependence on kerosene
and other lighting fuels
Cooking
Manufacture & sale of
improved stoves and
fuels
Cleaner and more cost
effective cooking
Avoided time in wood
collection and pot
cleaning, improved
security for women,
increased access to
education for young girls
who would otherwise need
to collect firewood
Refrigeration
Selling ice, ice-cream
etc. Storage & sale of
milk, meat & other
perishable food
products
More livestock
products sold, markets
opened in areas
where livestock exist
due to storage
facilities
Food no longer wasted,
cash flow improved in
livestock areas where
assets are tied up in
animals
Heating
Process heat for new
industrial processes
Improved comfort
Time saved in collecting
within hotels and cafés wood for heating
Communications Internet cafes, phone
charging
Finding best prices at
various markets,
obtaining
meteorological or
livelihoods based
information
Distance walked to charge
phones, cost of charging
phones
Irrigation &
water for
livestock
Growing new kinds of
crops, increasing
number of crop cycles in
a year, income from
livestock water pumps
Better yields,
increased resilience to
drought
Time spent manually
watering crops, time spent
walking livestock to find
sources of water (and
livestock losses)
Agro-processing Adding value via
processing agricultural
products
Increasing throughput
and lowering costs
Time spent manually
grinding/pounding etc
reduced labour for women
/ young girls & increase in
time for education, other
income generation and
recreation as a result
Manufacturing
Welding and metalwork Improved quality and
enabled
speed of carpentry
Time saved in hand
making repetitive designs
Access to energy enabling improvement in the efficiency of existing development
activities (such as agriculture via irrigation) and diversification of livelihoods, via
Renewable Energy to Reduce Poverty in Africa
5