Factors influencing sustainability of off-grid solar photovoltaic systems for rural electrification projects; a case of rural public primary schools in tiaty constituency, baringo county.

Abstract

The un 2030 agenda for sustainable development adopted in september 2015 includes the goal to end global energy poverty by providing universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Rural electrification is defined as percentage of the rural population with access to electricity. In kenya, rural electrification first became a public priority with the establishment of the rural electrification authority (rea), which later changed its name to rural electrification and renewable energy corporation (rerec), a government plan to subsidize the cost of electricity supply in rural areas. In 2015, rerec installed several solar pv panels in tiaty constituency, less than 5 years down the line problems such as low output, panel breakages, siltation are happening and little is being done to remedy the situation. This research study sought to establish the factors influencing the sustainability of solar pv systems for rural electrification, this was be done through the following objectives. To assess the extent to which the institutional factors influence sustainability of off-grid photovoltaic systems for electrification of rural public primary schools in tiaty constituency, baringo county in kenya, to investigate the extent to which the socio-economic factors influence sustainability of off-grid photovoltaic systems for electrification of rural public primary schools in tiaty constituency, baringo county in kenya, to establish how technology factors, influence sustainability of off-grid photovoltaic systems for electrification of rural public primary schools in tiaty constituency, baringo county in kenya, and to determine how socio-cultural factors, influence sustainability of off-grid photovoltaic systems for electrification of rural public primary schools in tiaty constituency, baringo county in kenya. These study findings are of importance to policy makers in the ministry of energy who may use it in formulation of policies regarding energy. The mixed method research design was used, since it provides a better understanding of research problems. The target population for the research study was 133 primary school head teachers but the accessibe population was 31, 1 rerec county supervisor and 1 renewable energy manager giving a total of 33 accessible respondents. Simple random sampling was used to get the sample of school heads wherease the county supervisor and renewable energy manager were purposively chosen, the sample size for the study was 30 gotten using yamane formula. Data was collected using questionnaires and coded into spss v23 then a correlational analysis done. Data is presented in the form of frequency tables and a pearson correlation coefficient to measure the strength of relationship between the variables computed. The findings indicated a positive correlation between institutional factors and sustainability of off-grid solar pv systems with (𝑟 = 0.5329), a positive correlation between economic factors and sustainability of off-grid solar pv systems with (𝑟 = 0.4318), and a strong positive correlation between technological factors and sustainability of off-grid solar pv systems with (r= 0.6102), wherease a weak negative correlation between sociocultural factors and sustainability of off-grid solar pv systems with (𝑟= −0.1028). The study concludes that institutional factors, economical factors and technological factors are key for the sustainability of off-grid solar pv system for rural electrification projects and recommends that emphasis should be put on the same for sustainability to be realized. The study proposes that further research should be done to ascertain the influence of socio-cultural factors on the sustainability of off-grid photovoltaic solar systems for rural electrification in a different area.