German off-grid solar company Mobisol announced on 13 December that it has partnered with Ethiopian solar power distributor SunTransfer Tech to begin selling solar home systems in Ethiopia. The partnership will see pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar products using Mobisol’s SolarHub Software Suite sold in the country for the first time.
Ethiopia has to-date been a less prominent off-grid solar market compared with other East African countries such as Kenya and Tanzania, but with a population of around 92m is a huge potential market.
“We are happy to team up with SunTransfer Tech to enter the largest market for solar home systems in East Africa, offering state of the art hardware and software solutions, designed in Germany”, Mobisol partnership and expansion manager Fasil Eyassu Melkie said.
SunTransfer Tech chief executive Yonas Workie said, “We will be fully utilising Ethiopia’s abundance of sunlight, the proverbial ‘13 months of sunshine’, to scale quickly, thus improving the lives and socioeconomic opportunities of rural communities throughout the country while helping to protect the climate”.
Mobisol supplies larger home systems able to support energy efficient household appliances and meet the needs of small businesses with more substantial power requirements. SunTransfer Tech specialises in providing PAYG solar home systems to rural areas, as well as solar water pumping systems and off- or on-grid solar PV systems for schools, offices, hospitals, and other community institutions. The company has been operating since 2005.
Ethiopia launched its National Electrification Programme (NEP) on 27 November. The NEP aims to achieve universal access to power for all Ethiopians by 2025, with 35% of the population supplied by off-grid energy. The programme expects around 5.4m households to rely on solar home systems.
