There are over 500,000 homes using PV today in villages around the world for electricity (Flavin and O'Meara, 1998b). Ten years later this figure has changed to over 3,400,00. In Kenya, more rural households receive electricity from PV than from the conventional power grid (Kozloff and Shobowale, 1994). The single largest market sector for PV is village power at about 45 percent of worldwide sales. This is mostly comprised of small home lighting systems and water pumping. Remote industrial applications such as communications are the second largest market segment.
PV is a technology, which offers a new vision for consumers and business as to how power can be provided. PV technology is already proving to be a force for social change in rural areas in less developed countries. The unique aspect of PV is that it is a "radical" or "disruptive" type of technology as compared to conventional power generation technologies. PV is a technology that does not build from the old technology base, but rather replaces that base from the bottom up. PV allows people the opportunity to ignore traditional electrical power supply structures and meet their own power needs locally. In rural regions of the world today, where there are no power companies offering electricity, PV is often the technology of choice.

The best performing renewable energy electrification systems are those that meet the expectations of the users. It is important to satisfy the basic needs of the user in order to ensure acceptance of renewable energy systems. Ownership and subsequent accountability is the key to system sustainability for PV.

Why pay up to $12,000 for new solar panels when you can have some for under $2800?

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