Solar electrification by the concession approach in rural Limpopo ...

Solar electrification by the concession approach in rural Limpopo province 31Table 10.2: Monthly expenditure (R) on all fuels including electricityn Mean Median SDAll sub-samples 275 93.20 74.00 68.02SHS-owners 120 128.02 92.17 78.04Grid-owners 42 59.10 58.16 27.77Non-electrified households 114 72.90 55.10 60.02When the cost of electricity is included, the energy expenditure for SHS-users still remains thehighest, and that for non-electrified households, unchanged, remains the second highest. The relativemagnitudes of these expenditures can be easily compared in Figure 10.1 above. The figure alsoincludes the overall mean for comparison, and it is apparent that SHS-users are the only sub-sampleabove the overall mean.10.2 The proportion of household budget devoted to fuels andelectricityAverage proportion of income spent on all fuels according to sub-samplesTable 10.3: Proportion of income spent on all fuels according to sub-samplesn Mean Median Std devAll sub-samples 247 8.6% 7.0% 6.3%SHS-owners 115 10.8% 8.3% 7.8%Grid-owners 40 6.1% 4.7% 4.3%Non-electrified households 95 7.6% 6.3% 5.6%When all households are taken into account, the mean percentage of total income spent on energy is8.6%. SHS-users top the list for percentage of income spent on energy, with a figure of 10.8% whilegrid-users spend the least, 6.1%. Thus, despite their higher incomes relative to the other subsamples,the high energy expenditure of SHS-users means they still spend a larger proportion of theirincome on energy.The fact that the poorest still spend a larger proportion of their income on energy is not alteredhowever, as Figure 10.2 shows. It can be seen that households with incomes above R1 000 permonth do not spend more than 20% of their income on energy (most are below 10%), those earningbelow this amount can spend far higher percentages on energy. Households earning above R3000per month spend well below 10% of their income on energy.% of income spent on energy ________70%60%50%40%30%20%10%0%- 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000Total monthly incomeTable 10.2: Scatter plot of income vs expenditure for all households in all sub-samplesENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE