September 9th, 2015 – The use of energy from renewable sources in parts of Kenya that aren’t connected to the national grid has a positive impact on the academic performance of those populations. This has been proven by the Powering Education project promoted by the Enel Foundation and Enel Green Power, presented the Milan Expo during Kenya’s National Day. The project (in collaboration with the Coca-Cola Company and Givewatts) is one of the first attempts to draw a link between two key issues for the sustainable growth of developing countries: the access to electricity of rural areas through the use of renewable energy sources, and the promotion of education. By combining the spread of solar lamps with rigorous impact assessments, the project explores whether the availability of clean energy sources has had an impact on school performance and family budget. In Africa, 620 million people lack access to electricity; of these, over 85% live in rural areas and aren’t connected to the national electricity grid, and for only a third of these areas there is an electrification plan already in place for the coming years. The energy poverty that characterizes these areas slows down the development of local communities and has a negative impact on the standard of living, access to health facilities, education and women empowerment. Launched in September 2013, in cooperation with the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community hubs of Rome and Nairobi in cooperation with the Enel Foundation and Givewatts, the first phase showed encouraging results that certify that electricity supports academic performance and benefits also the families of the students involved. The rigorous analysis showed that, on average, a student without a solar lamp achieved much better results if in his or her class there were a majority of pupils with solar lamps. The project also revealed that students in possession of a lamp tend to study more at home, and increases on average their time of study by approximately 17%. Families whose children received a solar lamp were also able to reduce costs by reducing the weekly bills by 10-15% and channeling a significant portion of their accrued savings for other domestic needs, such as improving water and sanitation services. In the second phase, the project aims to continue focusing on education, but wants to also identify the impact of clean energy sources within households (particularly employment levels). In this phase, the project will involve 60 schools and 2,300 students in the County of Kisii, in western Kenya. To date, Powering Education, in collaboration with Givewatts, has distributed more than 1,100 solar lamps in off-grid 70 rural villages, providing access to electricity in a sustainable and safe manner for more than 5,500 people.
