In its National Energy Policy 2017-2027, the Government of PNG has set the ambitious goal to provide “70% of population with access to electrical energy by 2030”. Currently, in late 2024, the value holds at 19% — only a very modest increase from the 13% measured in 2017.
The policy makers have set a noble target yet without saying how much electrification is needed to bring a household into the state of “electrification”. I have recently heard the claim that putting a Solar Home System (a solar-powered portable lamp) into a house would count as “electrification” for all persons living in that house and a massive deployment of solar lamps would achieve the stated government goal.
Electrification is certainly the largest engineering achievement of the 20th century, reaching far beyond the impact of cellphones and internet. While there is no scientific definition for “electrification”, there seems to be consensus in the engineering society that this would involve the implementation of power generation and distribution systems on a wider scale. Solar home lanterns surely do not match this criterion, not even in large quantities.
SolSol understands “electrification” as provision of grid-quality electrical energy with the standard 240V rating (for single-phase, or 415V for 3-phase systems) to the users homes. This allows to use any standard electrical appliance from any supplier from any country with the power sockets in the house.
SolSol’s approach of installing a central power house with battery storage facilities to supply energy to all houses within a community adds the aspect of power distribution network and economies of scale to the story.
With SolSol’s approach of grid-equivalent power, users need not exchange their entire electrical equipment in the house when the public power grid finally arrives at their village. The SolSol station can take over the power supply when the grid fails or during blackouts and can be switched to standby-mode when the public supply is established again.
A SolSol station supplying power to a community certainly counts as electrification by any standard. It thereby directly contributes to the government target of reaching electrification for “70% of the population by 2030”.
We see this as sustainable and clean electrification in a future-proof way.