A.M.E. - Solar Water Heater Maintenance, Retrofitting, & Installations - Senegal.

In the late 1970's, the Senegalese government initiated a program, supported by international donors, that promoted the diffusion of solar water heaters (SWH) in Dakar, capital of Senegal. A parastatal company titled SINAES (translated as Industrial Company for the Application of Solar Energy) was established accordingly in order to pursue this project. Supported by SINAES, a law was passed that required all new buildings to incorporate SWHs into design and construction; about 1,200 solar heaters were installed over the years.

Unfortunately, in 1991, under the World Bank's Structural Adjustment Program, the legislation, along with the entire program, was rescinded. Since the discontinuation, there had been a lack of maintenance and long-term after-sale service for SWHs; this dearth resulted in a myriad of inoperative systems in Dakar and the surrounding areas, thus damaging the public perception of solar systems in general.

Noting the business opportunity in the maintenance market, AME was established; it provides maintenance and repair services to the existing systems. However, its long-term goal lies in local manufacture, sales, installation, and maintenance.

AME's long-term plan for local manufacture and sale of new systems is supported by an analysis of SWH and electric water heater, which is the baseline technology. Though electric heaters are cheaper to purchase, their lifetime is about half of that of SWHs. Also, taking into account the relatively high price of electricity in Senegal at $1.2/kWh, SWHs have a payback period of one to two years, depending on usage.

In Dakar, the relatively mild temperature makes heating water a year round need. As most water heaters are electric, this constitutes an added load on the already overburdened electric power system. The introduction of maintenance service and eventual local manufacture of SWHs in Senegal will have positive impacts on households. In addition to re-establishing the public confidence in solar solutions to energy problems, SWH sales will reduce the monthly expenditure on hot water, considering the lifetime system costs.

AME secured a loan of $46,000 from AREED to become operational. This loan should be sufficient to cover salaries and operational costs and revolve the revenues into the purchase of new replacement stock, allowing for sustainability of the maintenance business.

In addition to financial aid, AREED is monitoring the company's evolution to ensure that the business is evolving as projected and the company is showing a sustainable growth over the initial years of operation.