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Egypt is promoting the use of solar heaters in its rural villages to meet energy requirements and to ensure the wider use of clean energy. People across the spectrum are coming forward to adopt the solar model for household purposes
Egypt is promoting the use of solar heaters in its rural villages to meet energy requirements and to ensure the wider use of clean energy. People across the spectrum are coming forward to adopt the solar model for household purposes.
A startup social enterprise is at the forefront. It promotes the use of a locally manufactured solar water heater installed on the rooftop of villagers, which enables them to have access to hot water for household purposes during winter months.
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An average household’s monthly income stands at EGP 5500 (US$178) in rural Egypt, which is insufficient to make both ends meet. Millions of Egyptians use gas tanks to heat up their water on a kitchen stove.
The movement to switch over increasingly to solar energy is spearheaded by an Egyptian American who was born and raised in the United States. She used to visit Egypt regularly with her family in the summer. After finishing her undergraduate studies in the US in 2010, Mousa moved to Cairo, where she engaged in volunteering activities in poor neighborhoods.
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She noticed that most poor-income households use manual methods to heat their water. She came up with the idea for her startup up. The manual methods affect the air quality inside poor houses and increase the risk of burns. In the cold months, an average family spends up to ten percent of their monthly income on butane cylinders. The use of heavily subsidized gas cylinders also puts a strain on the finances of the cash-strapped country which remains a net importer of oil and its derivatives.
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A study revealed that In 2013, three out of every four Egyptian households relied on butane cylinders because they had no access to low-cost, grid-connected supply of natural gas, according to the World Bank. Egyptians consume around 800 thousand butane cylinders a day, 50 percent of which are imported. The government spent nearly EGP 35 billion (US$1.32 billion) annually on subsidizing butane cylinders. It was a heavy burden on the government as the cost of importing and subsiding gas tanks is usually bound to rise given the instability of global oil prices.
Egypt hosted the 2022 UN summit on climate change, is located at the heart of the global solar belt with at least 2900 hours of sunshine annually. But very little of that sunshine is put to use. Presently, the government is focussing on promotion of the solar power to stem the outflow of resources due to heavy import bills for fuels.
Egypt aims to generate 42% of its needed energy from renewables, including solar, hydro, and wind by 2030. This has created business opportunities for many startups like Shamsina.
