Energy, a decisive factor for development

According to the World Energy Council, roughly 1.6 billion human beings, mainly living in rural or isolated areas of developing countries, lack access to electricity or any modern form of energy. An essential prerequisite for development, the availability of a safe, reliable, affordable energy supply creates a virtuous circle. It frees up time formerly devoted to collecting firewood, for example. It facilitates access to water and reduces the mortality linked to the use of hazardous or dirty energy sources, especially for cooking. It also helps create local income-generating activities and acts as a check on rural exodus.

Solutions tailored to the local situation

As an energy producer, Total has a responsibility to help eradicate these inequalities, especially in communities close to our operations. Our various energy-access initiatives since the decade began all address the same imperative: offering affordable, reliable energy services and improving living conditions. Besides creating new markets in some cases, our projects focus on an array of solutions, including stand-alone photovoltaic systems, solar pumping, solar cookers, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), diesel micro grids or cottage industry hubs, and support for the creation of rural electricity enterprises.

In 2006, Total distributed an in-house guide called Access to Energy for Developing Countries. The practical handbook, complete with examples, is designed to help subsidiaries set up viable, long-lived, reproducible projects. A sustainable development coordinator at the corporate level monitors the projects and organizes opportunities to compare notes and share best practices.

The guide reviews the various technical solutions available, and describes their advantages and drawbacks based on the context and community needs.

To keep projects afloat and ensure their self-sufficiency, sustainable service and user responsibility must be incorporated from the outset. Total’s guide emphasizes the best organizational solution for each situation:

• The establishment of a state-run authority;
  
• Microdistribution;
  
• The creation of a local service company for decentralized rural electrification programs.
  

Solar power serving rural communities

Total is directly or indirectly involved in a number of decentralized rural electrification projects, based mainly on solar energy.

In Cuba, Refining & Marketing’s Latin America and Caribbean Department is overseeing a program in the Viñales Valley. In this locale classified as a world heritage center by UNESCO, nearly a hundred homes now have electricity, more than half of them thanks to solar panels supplied by Ecosol Solar, a local company.

In Morocco, the solar panels installed by Temasol, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tenesol — a 50-50 Total-EDF joint venture — now supply nearly 25,500 households.

In South Africa, rural energy services company (RESCO) KwaZulu Energy Services (KES) — owned 35% by Total — aims to provide some 26,000 households in Eastern Cape province with photovoltaic solar power and LPG, building on a similar initiative that has already benefited around 8,000 households in KwaZulu-Natal.

In 2008, an evaluation of RESCOs conducted by our partner EDF in cooperation with the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) confirmed the technical and organizational benchmark set by these companies in the area of decentralized rural electrification. Recognized pioneers in this field, RESCOs have brought credibility to national rural electrification programs, enabling funds to be obtained from international lenders. These programs’ contributions to alleviating poverty were highlighted by the evaluation and include improved health and education, increased safety due to public lighting and, more simply, a feeling shared by users of being citizens like any others. The evaluation also identifies tangible avenues for continuing to improve the model, which is still experimental.

Mali: testing jatropha as a biofuel

Teriya Bugu is a combined experimental farm, equitable tourism center and laboratory for renewable energy use. It provides a living for more than 5,000 people in Mali. Total is partnering with associations and experts at the site to assess the potential of jatropha, an inedible, hardy succulent, as a biofuel. The seeds produce an oil that can be substituted for the diesel fuel currently used to run generators. The project is expected to demonstrate the viability of a standalone rural electrification model based on a shortened system.