Micro-energy systems in low-income countries: learning to articulate the solar home system niche in Tanzania

Despite multiple efforts over two decades in Tanzania to apply a solar home system (SHS) diffusion „model‟ generated in Kenya, it is only in recent years that a Tanzanian SHS market has begun to grow. Why is it that the Kenyan „model‟ seemed to fail in Tanzania, even as the SHS market grew rapidly in Kenya; and why has the Tanzanian market grown rapidly since the early 2000s? The objective of this paper is to explain the evolution of the Tanzanian SHS market. It applies the strategic niche management approach to the Tanzanian photovoltaic (PV) „niche‟ – the empirically identified set of actors, technologies and practices concerned with household electricity services using PV. By focusing primarily on the learning stimulated by a number of events, processes and projects, the research traces the dynamics of the sociotechnical trajectory of the Tanzanian PV niche. This then enables reflection on the Kenyan SHS market and about the diffusion of sustainable energy technologies in poor developing countries more generally.