Abstract
It has been reported that about one billion People still do not have access to electricity and three billion people still rely on solid fuels and kerosene for cooking and heating. One of the recommended solutions to address the rural energy demand is to adopt solar home systems Solar home system provides substantial benefits to rural households mainly in providing lighting energy services.
SHS have instrumental impact in improving lights to off-grid, reducing greenhouse gas emission and reduces impacts on health among rural livelihoods. However, most rural households in developing countries rely heavily on traditional biomass for their domestic energy use. This study was conducted to investigate acceptance and management constraint of solar home systems in rural area of Mecha District, Amhara National Regional State of Ethiopia. Multi-stage sampling procedure was followed to select sample households in the area. A total of 114 households (60 adopters and 54 non-adopters) were involved in the household survey. SPSS version 22 and Stata version 13.1 statistical software were used to analyses the data. The result of this study showed that wood, agriculture residuals and kerosene were the most commonly used fuels by adopter and non-adopter households for their domestic energy use. Besides, a considerable number of adopter (100%) and non-adopter (18.5%) households had positive attitude and awareness towards SHS technology. This was due to the fact that it is an alternative domestic and efficient energy source to improve fuel wood scarcity and improving lighting; it reduces women’s health problem and it improve children education status. Almost all sampled Adopters has positively accepted the SHS technology. Technical ability of adopters was found to be weak and was found management constraint for the installation of technology were major barriers such as lack of financial, institutional (access to credit), technical support and other institutional arrangements. For better scaling-up and sustainable adoption of SHS technology that leads for improving lighting energy, reducing deforestation and mitigating climate change the governmental energy institution, non-governmental organization, private sector and public sectors should work hand –in-hand within a good set up of strategic framework of collaboration.
Keywords: acceptance, Adopter, Energy consumption, management constraint, Mecha district, solar home system
