The International Energy Agency (IEA) [3] has estimated that worldwide lighting is responsible for emissions of approximately 1900 Mt CO2 per year, equivalent to 70% of the emissions from the world’s light passenger vehicles.
Eighty percent of these emissions from lighting are associated with electricity generation, but the IEA estimates that about 20% come from the 1% of global lighting that is produced by the direct combustion of paraffin and oil lamps used by the 1.6 billion people who have no access to electricity [3].
Hence, dramatically improved lighting system efficiency, together with electrification that replaces oil lamps with electric lamps, could make a big contribution to controlling global CO2 emissions. A large literature illustrates the cost-effectiveness of greenhouse gas mitigation through the use of energy efficient technologies such as improved lighting [4]–[13].
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/sgradeck/DOCS/Transition%20to%20SSL.pdf
I was aware that kerosene (paraffin) lamps contributed to global warming but I didn't realize how much. And the authors don't include the soot/carbon black that is created by these very inefficient lamps.
Luckily we have a solution. One that is working well and hopefully will expand to cover the more than one billion people who now live without electricity.
July, 2013
"Over the past decade, since the Bangladesh government launched a rural electrification programme supported by the World Bank and other international aid bodies, the number of off-grid installations in the country has rocketed. In 2002, installations rates stood at 7000; today that figure has exploded to nearly 2 million and counting, with average installation rates now topping 80,000 a month.
“A typical customer would give a 15% down payment, and then the balance would be made over a period of 24-36 months,” he says. “A typical system would be 50W – for LED lights, a black and white TV connection and mobile phone charger, with four-hour back-up up every day. The cost of everything would be US$300-325, and a household would typically pay US$8-10 for that every month.”
Moin says that even being able to power these relatively modest appliances makes a big difference to people’s lives. “It’s unbelievable, and until you see it, it’s very difficult to explain.
Let’s say you go to a rural remote home and they’re burning kerosene lights, suddenly overnight (because it only takes four hours to install a typical system) that home has proper lights and connection to TV – it’s transformational. And the quality of life keeps on improving – in terms of late hour education, and even in shops, they’re keeping them open later into the night.”
http://www.pv-tech.org/friday_focus/friday_focus_how_bangladesh_became_the_worlds_biggest_domestic_off_grid_pla
At 80,000 new installations per month Bangladesh should have added at least 1.1 million more micro-solar systems since this article was written.
People are paying less per month than the cost of kerosene. After a year or two the system is paid off and cash freed up. Air quality improves immediately. People become healthier and less money needs to be spent on medicine. People become more productive. Children find it easier to study for school and education improves.
This is a solution that pays for itself, creates new jobs, improves the lives of millions, and cuts GHG.
