Powering Malawian Communities
CRED is one of the 'Energy for Development' initiatives within the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. It's developing sustainable off-grid solar energy deployment models in Malawi.
The project was established in 2008 with a grant from the Scottish Government International Development Fund. Working with local partners and aligned with the Government of Malawi Rural Electrification Strategy, CRED targets the improved sustainability of community scale solar energy installations through community empowerment and local support.
Working alongside other University of Strathclyde and Scottish Government funded projects in Chikwawa district, CRED has deployed pilot installations in school and health facilities. Village energy committees have been established and trained, taking daily responsibility for security, maintenance, income generation activities and promoting and managing access to the facilities.
Local partnerships
CRED is a partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the University of Malawi (Blantyre Polytechnic), and the Government of Malawi (Dept of Energy Affairs). Polytechnic staff provide local expertise for system design, installation auditing, project management and community training.
Energising the community
The initial CRED installations focussed on school and health facilities in Chikwawa. Solar energy has so far enabled:
- thousands of hours of evening community activities
- tens of thousands of additional student study hours
- income generation equivalent to hundreds of pounds
More information
Final Report - end of project report with full description of activities and results.
Conference Paper - written in conjunction with the UoS Gambia project.
Social Evaluation - social impact evaluation of CRED project in Mwanayaya village.
Scoping Study - the CRED team led a Scoping Study for the Scottish Government in the summer of 2011.