Uganda – Green community energy

Green decentralized citizen energy is a promising approach to enable access to affordable clean energy in rural areas, to meet increasing energy needs and improve living standards while avoiding harmful substances to people’s health and the environment.

Citizen projects as the ones we implement with our Ugandan partners create new career prospects and enable all citizens to organise and participate in a reliable and affordable energy and water supply. In order to ensure citizen ownership of technologies and active citizen’s engagement we’ve been working with agricultural cooperatives, particularly their female and young cooperative members and potential members, in Luweero, Kiboga and Kyangwanzi, Uganda. The cooperatives operate newly installed photovoltaic modules for light and phone charges in their jointly run storage hall, a solar pump for watering coffee seedlings of high quality at their nursery and a briquette machine on a renting basis. Women have become ambassadors for spreading awareness on briquettes, water tanks and biogas. We are committed to extend the capacity building activities to further districts in Uganda and enable an exchange between several cooperatives from different districts.

Background
Only 4% of the rural population in Uganda has access to the public (often unstable) electricity grid. There is a high consumption of kerosene for lighting, diesel for power generation and firewood for cooking despite the fact that kerosene and diesel are expensive and collecting firewood is labour-intensive and causes major environmental and health problems. Likewise, water supply is insufficient for both households and public institutions. Those conditions have particularly negative effects on women and girls who are often responsible for collecting water and firewood and are required to walk increasingly long distances which may not only be dangerous but may also prevent them from attending school or paid work. Affordable sustainable energy sources owned and run by the members of cooperatives are a first step to combatting those challenges.

Partners
ARUWE
Caritas Luweero
GIZ Uganda
UNREEA
Bürgerenergiegenossenschaft BENG eG

Donors
Bavarian government
URBIS Foundation
Siemens Foundation