trends and future of sustainable development - TransEco

households. In order to do that, they established a network of Provincial Electricity Service Companies(PESCO) in all provinces. PESCO companies are small local companies that take care of the distributionand management of the solar panels in provinces. They in turn mobilise Village Energy Managers thatwork at the village level and collect the monthly fees and report the needs to the spare parts etc.Compared to many other often donor-driven solar home system programs (Marinot et al. 2001;Karekezi et al. 2002; Jacobson 2007) the implementation in Laos has been better planned and isworking relatively well. The significant problem, however, is that the institutional structure encouragesPESCOs to sell the panel to the areas with the easiest access (i.e. where the road connection is good). Inthe areas where the electricity grid does not reach yet but where the road network is good, the villagesalong the roads are likely to get solar home systems because it is much easier and cheaper for PESCO toinstall the panels and collect the fees if they can easily access the villages by car. The electricity grid islikely to be extended along the main roads. As a result, the solar panels tend to be installed in the areaswhere the grid is likely to be extended soon, and the remote areas remain without electricity.Therefore, even though the solar panel program is meant for the electrification of the remote ruralareas, the panels are mainly spread to the villages along the roads because there is no economic or otherincentive for PESCOs to go to the areas where access is difficult. This makes solar panels only a shortterm solution. But the temporary nature of SHS seems not to be totally unintended outcome as anywaySHS seems to be mostly perceived as a temporary solution:“Yes, the idea, I suppose, is that, indeed, this is just as a temporary solution for in many, inmany villages, hopefully.” (interviewed VOPS official A )And it seemed to be preferred to be so:” Everybody needs to have more better life and more satisfaction, you know. Solar is not, is not,the best option, but solar is just for lighting.” (VOPS official B)To summarise, it can be said that even though the off-grid program is defined as success story, it hasnot been clearly reaching its main objectives. It seems to be successful in serving as a temporary preelectrificationphase for the areas that are not yet but are likely to be electrified by grid connection infuture. But it does not, however, seem to be reaching the most remote areas likely to be without gridconnection for several years to come. So even if at the discourse level the solar panel program is intendedfor the very remote mountainous areas solar where grid extension is extremely difficult, but in reality theprogram spreads first to the villages along the good roads because for PESCOs it makes sense to first goto install the panels in areas where it is easy to access by the road. This makes also the collection ofmonthly fees easier.The explicit expectations of the program implementers were also interesting in relation to the moregeneral stated objectives of World Bank leading a revolution in renewables. If the off-grid, or alternativeelectrification program, is considered as temporary electrification solution, or pre-electrification phasebefore the grid connection, they cannot provide an alternative for large scale electrification like largehydro power. As one interviewed World Bank expert stated: “Off-grid only play a complimentary role inoverall electrification, especially in those remote villages that grid cannot reach in short period.” Thusthe decentralised small systems like SHS in Laos do not provide any real alternative to large scaleelectrification schemes. And in Laos for longer run World Bank seems to be visioning that the viablerenewable energy consists of large-scale hydropower distributed to Laotians through centralised grid.The main part of the World Bank funded rural electrification project consists actually of grid extensions.119