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Cambodia has one of the lowest electrification rates in South East Asia, with around 40 percent1 of the Cambodian population living with no access to reliable grid electricity. As a result of UNCDF’s SHIFT Challenge Fund – CleanStart energy access window, Kamworks is partnering with UNCDF to lower the affordability barrier for low-income Cambodians and expand its operations so that more Cambodian people can experience the benefits from solar energy.
Solar panels help with Khmer language schoolwork
Sal Dolar (pictured) is 13 years old. He lives in Kampong Chnnang province, with his parents along with his five brothers and sisters. Doing his homework became much easier, since his family installed a solar home system last year from Kamworks – a leading solar energy provider in Cambodia - with two lights inside and one light outside the home.
Car batteries are widely used by these rural households to power their home lighting and appliances. These typically weigh around 20kgs and are transported from home to charging stations by bicycle as frequently as three times a week. It is mostly women and children that carry these to and from the charging stations. But as the battery gets older, the charge does not last as long anymore. For some, even the batteries are not an option, and therefore resort to candles or kerosene lights.
Solar Home Systems offer a variety of benefits saving time and money as the batteries no longer need to be brought to a charging station every other day, it offers brighter lighting, and also enables more appliances to be used simultaneously over a longer period of time.
Solar keeps a floating village alit
The daily life of 21 year-old Heng Kinlang in the floating village of Chhnok True in Cambodia's Kampong Chhnang province is literally a balancing act. The homes of Heng’s family and neighbours in the village are built on stilts over a lake. Going to a shop or picking up her brother means having to take a boat. Moreover, because grids can not be built in lakes, the Chhnok True floating village has no electricity.
Fortunately, Heng’s family was able to buy a “pay-as-you-go” (PAYGO) solar home system from Kamworks. With no land deed to provide as collateral, families like Heng’s are often ineligible for loans from microfinance institutions. Heng’s family was finally able to invest in one because Heng’s family could use Kamworks' PAYGO solar home system.
Heng’s mother, Pat Chet, aged 68, can turn on a fan during her afternoon naps, and Heng can use a solar lantern when she is on her boat at night.
Kamworks has been in operation in Cambodia since 2006. Both Sal and Heng’s family are their customers. Kamworks is partnering with UNCDF to lower the affordability barrier for low-income Cambodians with its PAYGO technology and expand its operations so that more Cambodian people can experience the benefits from solar energy.
Laurent Leleu, Project Manager of Kamworks, said: “The technical support received from CleanStart in working out asset financing options is very valuable to us. It helps us to overcome our next challenge: scaling up our activities.”
Partnering for a Common Purpose:
UNCDF’s CleanStart and Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) programmes jointly launched the Energy Access Challenge to build new markets and innovatively lower the affordability barrier for low-income consumers who want to pay for modern clean energy.
About CleanStart
UNCDF’s CleanStart programme aims to increase the access to clean energy by innovating support for low-income consumers to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy and, in the process, reveal new markets and build national financing ecosystems ready to meet clean energy demand. CleanStart is supported by the Austrian Development Cooperation, Government of the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
About Kamworks
Kamworks, established in Cambodia by Dutch solar engineers in 2006, aims at making solar for rural electrification affordable with its revolutionary PAYGO solar home system technology. With PAYGO, operational costs are lower, service is better and clients without collateral can be served.
About SHIFT
UNCDF’s SHIFT aims to expand women's economic empowerment through financial inclusion. SHIFT advances financial markets by changing the behavior of market actors to stimulate investment, business innovations and regulatory reform in growing inclusive enterprises. SHIFT catalyses innovative partnerships to accelerate financial inclusion and women's economic participation in the least developed countries of the ASEAN region. The SHIFT programme is jointly co-funded by UNCDF and the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
1 Cambodia Socio-Economic Survey 2014.
