Night Fishing

Siemens press picture

Guest bloggers Tim Gengnagel and Philipp Wolburg have spent time in Tanzania, working with night fishermen who use kerosene lanterns to attract fish to their nets.  Long operating hours, plus high fuel-use rates of these pressurized lanterns result in 1 to 1.5 liters of kerosene use per lamp each night provide a strong case for conversion to LED sources. Sadly, climate change (to which kerosene lamps contribute), is hampering fish yields in this part of the world.

Tim and Philipp are now working with the Lumina Project and returning to Tanzania to clarify the technology needs and communicate these to off-grid lighting manufacturers interested in this market.

They conclude their post with a handfull of questions intended to gather existing experience in this space and guide their research.  We would appreciate hearing from anyone in the Lumina network with insights into these questions.

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Around 22,000 fishermen[1] live at the Tanzanian shore of Lake Victoria and earn their livelihood catching a small fish called Dagaa[2]. In order to attract the Dagaa, the fishermen use pressurized kerosene lanterns mounted on top of small wooden floats. Each of these lanterns burns about 1 to 1.5 liters of kerosene per night of fishing. They fish around 25 nights per month, depending on the seasons. Per night, they operate the lanterns between 8 to 12 hours each night while fishing.

Consuming about half of the fishermen’s earnings, the use of these lanterns seriously impedes  economic development. The dependence on kerosene leaves fishermen vulnerable to the price volatilities and uncertainties associated with this fuel.

In addition to this, the total annual combustion of about 8,000 tons of kerosene is associated with 25,000 tons of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Furthermore, during rough fishing nights some of the kerosene spills into the already highly polluted lake, which remains one of the main drinking water sources for the local population.

Similar night-fishing techniques are employed all around the lake and to our knowledge are common in developing countries all around the world.

There have been several attempts to address this issue and replace the kerosene lanterns with more efficient lighting devices. We dealt with this problem for the first time in 2009, when we conducted some fieldwork in Mwanza, Tanzania. We developed an initial prototype lighting system based on locally available items (see photo below). We employed a waterproof Sundaya Multilamp (CFL), which was rated at 1000 lumens, plus solar batteries (12V, 24Ah) that we charged with an over-sized 50W Solar panel to ensure full recharging even on cloudy days. Due to the heavy battery we had to supplmeent the traditional float. This system was able to meet the demands of the fishermen with respect to the catch volume they were used to from the kerosene lanterns.

Another CFL-light we tested provided only 600 lumens, which did not meet  expectations. Concerning the required light putput, it shall be noted that the much of the light is wasted because it is either reflected by the float or on the water surface.

Most fishing lamps that are employed in the Western world are submersed and emit green light. While we had no chance of testing for the color yet, submersed lights were less efficient (in terms of fishing success) than if they were mounted on floats above the water level.

The task of replacing kerosene lanterns with more efficient lighting technologies faces several specific challenges. On the one hand, a new system needs to provide high lighting output, while being reliable and operating for 8 to 12 hours daily. This places some constraints on the battery employed. For the future, the use of LED-technology thus seems to constitute a promising approach.

That said, the initial cost of a new system is critical. The first prototype had a cost of $365 (including the solar panels), which had a payback time of less than 12 months. This is an indicator of the great potential of a new lighting solution. Some fishermen explicitly stated their ability to afford the new system even at this price. However, given a large variance in income among the fishermen, it is clear that initial cost remains a major obstacle. Certainly costs could be lowered by shifting to LED systems. Micro-finance products seem appropriate to address this problem. It seems crucial to us that throughout the process of distributing and financing the system local structures are used. These structures could include fish traders, fishing camp chiefs and boat owners.

Questions:

1. Since the potential market size is a very important characteristic to factor for manufacturers, we would be very interested in learning about other where such night-fishing techniques are known to be employed. For example, we have seen reports that about 85,000 shrimp fishermen use kerosene lighting in Sri Lanka.
2. Which types of fuel-based lanterns are utilized for night fishing in these locations?
3. What is the nightly fuel use, and how does the cost compare to the value of fish caught?
4. Seeing that this project targets a niche market, it seems advisable to search for  existing products that meet the need (rather than looking to industry to design a new product for a  niche market). We would be grateful for any recommendations as to which existing products may be suitable.
5. How is the main fish sought in Lake Victoria--Rastrineobola argentea/Silver Cyprinid--attracted to light? (Diffusion, pattern, distance, color). What  differences might exist for other economically desirable fish that are caught at night?

Tim Gengnagel and Philipp Wolburg

Industrialized world begins to catch up with developing world ;)

The U.S. poultry production industry is now experimenting with LED lighting, and seems to be achieving good results.

While we are confident that the developing world will adopt LED lighting more rapidly than the industrialized world (for chicken production and many other uses), it is nice to see that the "North" is making progress.

A separate article in World Poultry magazine discusses illumination for broiler production, noting that excessive illumination reduces yields....

Flood of light

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We began recommending LED lighting solutions for refugee camps about a decade ago, but it seems to have taken until now for a detailed demonstration project and follow-up assessment to be performed.

With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Red Cross, Elephant Energy focused on victims of the 2010-2011 floods in Northern Namibia (download full report).  More than 37,000 people were displaced during this event, many of whom had no light of any kind at night.  Tenure in “flooding camps” varies widely.  Prior floods have resulted in people being bound to relief camps for up to four years.

According to the report, “the intent of the Energization Plan was to distribute solar-powered lighting and charging technologies in flood-camps and to evaluate the benefits of these technologies in the disaster situation by conducting baseline and follow-up energy surveys with product recipients."

A baseline survey of 169 households in one of the regions confirmed the obvious: lighting fuels in refugee camps are predominantly candles, kerosene, and even wood.  In this area, 61% of those surveyed used candles for light, while 7% used kerosene and another 7% used wood.  19% had no indoor lighting whatsoever.  Respondents reported  spending US $2.25 per week on traditional lighting fuels.

The solar-charged products were targeted at particularly vulnerable flood victims, including 1) school-going children, 2) vulnerable and disabled people (based on Red Cross criteria), 3) orphans and vulnerable children with special needs and 4) child-headed households.

Four commercially available off-grid solar-charged LED lighting products were chosen, some of which also had cell-phone charging capabilities.  In all, 2,280 lamps were distributed. Most of the systems offered had passed successfully through the Lighting Africa quality assurance process. This type of situation -- centralized product selection and procurement – is an ideal application of the Lighting Africa protocols.

According to 192 follow-up surveys, 93% of the recipients reported being “very happy” with the products.  Respondents claimed that they obtained nearly 4 hours per day more lighting than they enjoyed previously.  Candle use dropped from 61% to  4%. The lights achieved the desired goal of deeply offsetting the use of traditional (polluting) lighting strategies.

In addition to energy savings, anecdodal reports indicated many other benefits, including that children studied into the night, money was earned (by using the systems to charge cell phones for others), snake attacks were prevented and hours of productive time were added to each day.

Five things you should know about women (and men)

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The following Guest Blog is provided by Peter Alstone from Humboldt State University

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Let’s begin with what should be obvious: about half the people on Earth are women.

In light of that, it is absolutely necessary to account for their needs and power to make a difference in the off-grid world. 

The Lighting Africa program released a new report that moves the conversation forward about how to expand women’s role in the off-grid lighting market forward.

Women, like men, have a lot to gain from modern lighting and their involvement in the supply chain is a key to success. The benefits of modern lighting are well known. Compared to kerosene it can save money, reduce indoor air pollution, eliminate fire risk, and provide better quality light. What might have been less obvious is the key role women play in the success of the market…

The five key things you should know are:

1)    Women and men agree! Modern, clean lighting is better than the fuel-based status quo, and there aren’t big differences in their preferences for household lighting.

2)    Entrepreneurial women and men run different kinds of businesses with different lighting needs. Think vegetable stand versus metal work.

3)    Women hold the purse strings in many households, and make about 40% of the decisions related to lighting purchases. They are key buyers.

4)    Women and children bear the brunt of indoor pollution from fuel-based lighting. Both men and women with awareness of the issue prefer modern lighting.

5)    We need to deploy micro-finance to support modern lighting. Women have even less access to formal banking than men in the developing world.

~ Peter Alstone

A Bottle of Light

Remarkable video report on the BBC news today.

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A light went on (pardon the pun) in the mind of an socially minded designer in the Philippines.

Millions of people in the developing world live in slums comprised of sheet-metal buildings with few if any windows.  It's dark inside, even in the middle of the day.

Grab a discarded plastic water bottle.  Fill it with chlorinated water.  Add a collar of sheet metal roofing and drop it in a same-sized hole, and, shazam, a bright source of daylight into an otherwise dark dwelling.

The inventor says that the first one was installed only four months ago, and there are already 15,000 units.  He claims that each unit produces the equivalent of 60Watts (incandescent) light....  I'm not sure of that, but whatever the exact illuminance, it beats an otherwise dark room, and turns trash into a treasure at the same time.

Ikea Gets in the Game

I had a double-take yesterday while walking the halls at Ikea.

Well, actually it's closer to "Hundreds of Millions", but who's counting?

Anyway, how nice to see this. The PV cell is encased in a (presumably) water-tight box along with the batteries, and just pops out of the base for charging.  The product generates a healthy pool of very uniform light - about 1 meter  in diameter at 1 meter from the source.

One can't know how good the product is until Ikea should put the product through the Lighting Africa testing paces. Let's hope they do this.

Yak'ing about Light

Tomorrow's issue of the China Dailly adds to a growing body of evidence on how off-grid lighting can improve the quality of life, especially for children.

Citing results from a recently solar-elecrified Tibetian Yak herders school in the village of Yenge, the article describes how darkness after nightfall contributes to illiteracy:

While Yege's children are the township's first generation who can read, they would effectively become illiterate after dusk.  ... The lack of electricity is a factor in Qinghai's 10.2-percent illiteracy rate - the country's highest after the Tibet autonomous region, according to the 2010 census.

Despite China's prodigious efforts to extend the grid into rural areas, China still has 8.5 million households without electricity. (My guess is much more....)  Nomadic groups, are in particular need.  More than half of these household heads can't read and never attended school.

In contrast, 2/3 of those with receiving solar lighting under a new campaign can read.

According to the village Chief:

"Without power, the school was like a prison," he says. "So parents didn't want to send their kids. They thought it was more important for them to herd yaks than to study. Having electric lights also saves the children's eyesight from the damage caused by straining to read and write by candlelight, he says.

Lighting & Quality of Life

The Gallup polling organization released some remarkable survey results today.

Aside from the interesting facts and figures on electrificaiton rates and types of energy used for lighting, the poll asks about the importance of electric lighting in overall well being, When asked to evaluate their lives using the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, those who say their main source of lighting comes from electricity rate their present lives more than 0.5 points higher on a scale from 0 to 10 than those who rely on fuel lamps or other sources.

Lighting Fuel Prices

Think the price of gas is bad, try kerosene for lanterns.

(Chart from Lumina Project report: "Solid-State Lighting on a Shoestring Budget: The Economics of Off-Grid Lighting for Small Businesses in Kenya")

The world has been on the fossil fuel roller-coaster for decades, and the most recent spike was one of the worst.  According to the Chart, what goes up does not always go down -- at least for one location in Kenya that Lumina Project researchers at Humboldt State University have been following particularly closely.  Wealthy energy users in the industrial world saw a greater drop in oil prices following the spike than did those at the bottom of the economic period.  One of the many inequities in this domain.

In practice, kerosene prices vary widely.  Many factors are at work.  Where it is heavily subsidized, prices can be quite low, e.g. around $0.25/liter in India today, despite many recent price increases.  It is said that the Indian government spends more subsidizing kerosene prices than it does on education....

On the other hand, where energy taxes are employed, kerosene prices can rise well over $1/liter in the cities.  But this is for people able to buy relatively large volumes (a liter or more at a time).  The poorest off-grid lighting users often can only afford a few tablespoons of fuel at a time, and are hit with substantial markups for that. Users report paying more than twice the price at the pump for these small quantities. I've seen prices reported ranging from $0.07 to $2.00 per liter (Table S5 in the Supporting Online Material for an article we wrote in Science).

Similarly, as one gets farther from urban centers, prices tend to go up.  This is due in part to scarcity, but also to the greater difficulty of gaining access.I took the following photo in rural China, where people had to carry kerosene up very steep hill trails.

Data on kerosene prices are very spotty.  Sadly, there is no central repository of this information focused on what is paid by households in the developing world. Having this information is important for humanitarian purposes, and to perform accurate cost-benefit analyses on alternative strategies.  Those paying the most for lighting fuels will of course enjoy the fastest payback times for substitutes such as LED-based systems.

Two new resources from Lighting Africa

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Lighting Efficiency and Product Design Optimization
The steadily increasing efficacy and decreasing cost of LEDs is creating opportunities to provide more light for longer periods to off-grid consumers.  This note presents a basic framework for understanding how lighting system efficiency can affect overall product design.  It will be helpful and informative for any stakeholder who is interested in the implications for manufacturers and consumers of LED technology trends.

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Interpreting Standardized Specification Sheets (SSS)
In response to broad demand from the industry and stakeholders, Lighting Africa has launched a Standardized Specification Sheet (SSS) program. The specification sheets provide third-party verification (via the Lighting Africa website) of quality and performance for off-grid lighting products that have been tested according to the Lighting Africa Quality Test Method (LA-QTM). This briefing note provides guidance for interpreting the information on a specification sheet. You can access the specification sheets for the various products that have been tested at www.lightingafrica.org/specs.>
 

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