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Using vibrations to see into Yellowstone's magma reservoir

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 04/16/2025 - 15:00
Beneath Yellowstone lies a magma reservoir, pulsing with molten and superheated rock and exsolved gases. Scientists have long known about the chamber's existence, but have yet to precisely locate its uppermost boundary and characterize the contents of the chamber closest to the surface—information crucial for understanding the potential perils this volcanic feature poses.

Desert reservoirs found to trap organic carbon in sediment

Phys.org: Earth science - Wed, 04/16/2025 - 14:19
In 2021, while revelers across America celebrated the fourth of July, three researchers waded through a shallow river delta in the New Mexican desert. Abby Eckland, Irina Overeem and Brandee Carlson stood in what remained of the Rio Grande—years of drought had shrunk the river to a few small channels. Just downstream, the channels entered the Elephant Butte Reservoir—New Mexico's largest.

300 Million Years of Polar Wander: Slowly but Surely

EOS - Wed, 04/16/2025 - 14:02
Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: AGU Advances

Most evidence for plate motions in the geological past comes from remnant magnetization of crustal rocks. These indicate progressive changes in latitude with respect to the magnetic dipole. While such paths are often only apparent since relative motions can be explained by continental drift, there is a component of true polar wander. Since spin organizes the convecting core’s geodynamo, polar wander implies motions of the whole Earth with respect to the planet’s rotation axis.

Vaes and van Hinsbergen [2025] provide a reanalysis of paleomagnetic data and find wander rates of approximately 3 centimeters per year, consistent with a smooth response of the moments of inertia to density anomalies shifting within mantle convection. The data cannot rule out faster motions on timescales shorter than approximately 10 million years ago, and there are uncertainties such as due to the non-unique absolute motions of the entire lithosphere with respect to the deep mantle. However, the polar motion paths appear controlled by the connected system of subduction and lowermost mantle anomalies, substantiating earlier suggestions. This system also controls core heat flow, and with it perhaps the nature of the dynamo.

Moreover, some of the deep anomalies have distinct geochemical signatures as seen from plume-sourced hotspots. The geographic links of such reservoirs with the Wilson cycle arise from polar wander as well as absolute and relative plate motions, and the associated interactions remain to be fully integrated in planetary evolution models. Such work is crucial for better estimates of paleoclimate as well as an integrative view of continental geology within the core and mantle components of the Earth system.

Citation: Vaes, B., & van Hinsbergen, D. J. J. (2025). Slow true polar wander around varying equatorial axes since 320 Ma. AGU Advances, 6, e2024AV001515. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001515

—Thorsten Becker, Editor, AGU Advances

Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Solar Power Shortages Are on the Rise

EOS - Wed, 04/16/2025 - 13:17
Source: Geophysical Research Letters

The use of solar power is growing rapidly, especially in developing regions in the tropics, as countries work toward meeting carbon neutrality goals. But according to new research, solar power use is also accompanied by solar power shortages, or “droughts,” when demand exceeds supply for at least 3 days. Such shortages can leave millions without access to cooling or cooking abilities.

Lei et al. analyzed global supply and demand for solar power from 1984 to 2014, looking for instances of these 3-day shortages and the conditions under which they occur. Over that time, the western United States, eastern Brazil, southeastern Asia, and much of Africa each experienced at least five solar power droughts per year, and solar power droughts increased at a rate of 0.76 additional shortage per decade. This increase in rate is responsible for 29% of the weather-driven solar droughts that occurred during the 30-year period.

Solar power droughts are driven by a combination of soaring temperatures that increase demand for cooling and inclement weather or light-blocking pollution that suppresses power generation, the researchers found. Low solar power generation typically becomes a problem during periods of high cooling demand—precisely when power is most needed to keep people comfortable and safe.

The researchers also modeled how the frequency and severity of solar power droughts could change under different emissions scenarios, assuming modern infrastructure. Under Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 2-4.5, a theoretical medium-emissions pathway used in projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the researchers projected that by the 2090s, solar droughts will become 7 times more frequent and 1.3 times more severe than those in the historical period. In lower-emissions scenarios, solar power droughts peak in the 2060s and then decrease because lower emissions mean fewer heat waves.

The findings illustrate the importance of adopting mitigation measures and clean energy sources to lower emissions, the authors say. Doing so, they add, could result in a “cooler and cleaner future.” (Geophysical Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL112162, 2024)

—Rebecca Dzombak, Science Writer

Citation: Dzombak, R. (2025), Solar power shortages are on the rise, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250145. Published on 16 April 2025. Text © 2025. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

A Diverse New Generation of Scientists Observes Earth from Above

EOS - Wed, 04/16/2025 - 13:17

Many instructors in Earth sciences and other scientific disciplines wish to engage students with the latest advances in their fields, teach cutting-edge skills, and adopt more equitable and inclusive teaching practices. The latter is an especially pressing need in the Earth sciences, which remain among the least diverse of all science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields [Bernard and Cooperdock, 2018].

However, achieving these goals while balancing other requirements of careers in science and science education is extraordinarily challenging. It is simply impossible to be an expert in everything. Instructional models that significantly reduce barriers to providing innovative teaching may thus be highly valuable for scientist-instructors, saving them time and increasing their effectiveness in engaging a diversity of students.

The active learning that this approach engenders lends itself to equitable and inclusive teaching practices.

The comprehensive, evidence-based approach of Observing Earth from Above offers such a model, tailored for teaching students how to access, visualize, and communicate satellite remote sensing data focused on the environment. First piloted in 2023, we developed Observing Earth from Above to provide equitable and inclusive pedagogy and content that transforms students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward science and to create an environment where all students can be successful.

We applied the principles of project-based learning (PBL), in which students engage in projects as a foundational part of the curriculum. Seven principles guide the PBL approach:

  • Start with a challenging problem or question
  • Be subject to sustained inquiry
  • Have authenticity
  • Incorporate student voice and choice
  • Provide opportunity for reflection
  • Include critique and revision
  • Conclude with a public-facing end product

The active learning that this approach engenders lends itself to equitable and inclusive teaching practices [Theobald et al., 2020]. It also supports our goal to empower students and increase their interest in science, their science identity, and their sense of self-efficacy, which are keys to enhancing diversity in STEM [Ballen et al., 2017a].

A Range of Resources

The materials developed for Observing Earth from Above focus on NASA’s Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission [Fisher et al., 2020]. ECOSTRESS, launched in 2018, provides high spatial resolution observations of land surface temperatures globally, with revisit times of every 3–5 days. These land surface temperatures are then used to derive additional data products related to evapotranspiration, water use efficiency, and evaporative stress index.

At the heart of the resources provided by Observing Earth from Above is a series of follow-along tutorials in which students learn how to access ECOSTRESS data using the free NASA AppEEARS (Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples) interface, visualize those data using free and open-source geographic information system (GIS) software (Figure 1), and then effectively communicate their findings. A key goal is for students to repeatedly practice accessing and visualizing data over the span of the tutorials, creating familiarity through repetition while gradually introducing new and increasingly sophisticated skills and data products. However, each tutorial is also designed to stand alone and to require only about 30 minutes to complete, which increases the flexibility of their use.

Fig. 1. The active learning tutorial modules developed for Observing Earth from Above are designed to engage students in real-world issues while they learn, develop, and practice new skills. Click image for larger version.

We complement the tutorials with video lectures that introduce the ECOSTRESS mission, provide comprehensive overviews of the theory and algorithms for each data product, discuss current applications of these products, and consider best practices in data visualization and science communication. The slide decks used for each lecture are available for instructors to modify and adopt as needed.

Resources also include short video interviews with individuals of diverse identities who have different careers connected to remote sensing. For example, students can learn how a college student found himself in graduate school using satellite remote sensing to detect crop disease or how an air pollution specialist uses satellite remote sensing to track air quality.

Together these resources form the basis of a course with learning outcomes aligned to core competencies, including the abilities to apply the process of science, use quantitative reasoning, understand the interdisciplinary nature of science, communicate and collaborate with others, and understand how science relates to society. In addition, we provide sample syllabi, assignments, and even grading rubrics, each of which can be particularly helpful for early-career faculty developing new classes while balancing research and service demands.

Pedagogy and Curriculum in Practice

The course spans disciplines including environmental science, remote sensing, geographic information systems, data science, science communication, environmental justice, and others.

We have now taught the Observing Earth from Above materials twice to undergraduate students at Chapman University in Orange, Calif. The course spans disciplines including environmental science, remote sensing, GIS, data science, science communication, environmental justice, and others. As such, it draws students from across majors—from philosophy and business to science and engineering—engaging them in interdisciplinary thinking grounded in science. Such an approach, connecting STEM to other disciplines, can improve students’ ability to contribute to the STEM workforce [Tytler, 2020].

During twice-weekly class sessions, students first learn about a given topic through a lecture; then they work through a tutorial on that topic. Weekly homework assignments prompt students to engage further by producing a new satellite remote sensing data visualization related to the topic.

For example, students may practice working with land surface temperature data by drawing a polygon around their hometown on a map, downloading corresponding ECOSTRESS data, and producing a visualization of the hottest or coldest local surface temperatures. This “hometown temperature competition” exercise begins to connect satellite remote sensing to issues of personal relevance, which is an important motivational factor for student learning and may provide inspiration for career paths [Priniski et al., 2018]. Having students work on a series of low-stakes assignments through the course ensures that they are making progress and that they have opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned in a way that minimizes the undue stress and anxiety that often accompany high-stakes midterm and final exams [Ballen et al., 2017b].

After learning to gather and visualize land surface temperature data, students turn their attention to producing visualizations of evapotranspiration and water use efficiency in different environments, for example, comparing a field with a neighboring forest. They ultimately tackle a final project of their choosing, often using ECOSTRESS data to characterize a recent environmental event such as a heat wave or wildfire, which offers a sense of timeliness and relevance. Final projects have ranged from a study of how cooling water from power plants affects lake surface temperatures to how dam removal affects rates of evapotranspiration on neighboring riverbanks.

One student studied the surface temperatures of the school grounds in her hometown of Brea, Calif., for her final project (Figure 2). Increasing temperatures at schools represent a growing problem that has implications for students’ physical and mental health. She and another student have since expanded this work to consider every K–12 public school across Orange County, California, and are studying how school ground temperatures correlate with neighborhood demographics. This work drew interest from city government officials, who are using the information to help decide where to prioritize limited resources for repairing and renovating school grounds.

Fig. 2. This poster, produced by an undergraduate student in the Observing Earth from Above course at Chapman University as part of a final class project, compares ground surface temperatures at schools in Brea, Calif. (outlined in blue), during a heat wave. Temperature data were collected by the ECOSTRESS mission on 18 August 2023. Temperatures shown in the insets are averages for the area of that school. Credit: Gabriella Dauber

Students have expressed excitement and a sense of accomplishment at seeing the societal impacts of their work.

Students have expressed excitement and a sense of accomplishment at seeing the societal impacts of their work. In addition to the interest in the school temperatures project, other student projects are now featured on NASA’s ECOSTRESS image gallery, where they contribute to the mission’s public-facing communication efforts. Following participation in the Observing Earth from Above course, some students have focused on transitioning their class projects into publishable science, helping to advance their careers and expanding the value of the ECOSTRESS mission.

Encouraging Outcomes

The 47 students in our first two cohorts reported increases in their interest in remote sensing and science, in their sense of science identity, and in their self-efficacy to participate in science (Figure 3). One possible explanation for the reported increases may be the success of project-based learning; in semistructured interviews, students repeatedly mentioned the course’s “real-world” approach (in contrast to typical problem sets and exams):

  • “The projects connected classroom theories to real-world environmental issues, which made the learning process incredibly relevant and engaging.”
  • “Tackling real-world problems through projects developed my ability to analyze complex datasets and think critically about potential solutions.”
  • “The hands-on GIS component was unlike anything offered in my other courses, providing not just insight but real-world skills.”

More equivocal were students’ responses about their interest in pursuing a career in science, which did not change significantly after participating in the course. A possible explanation is that about half the students across the two classes were already pursuing majors outside the natural sciences and may have been envisioning careers related to those majors.

Still, the videos featuring individuals from various careers in remote sensing were well received by many of the students, according to their interview responses. We are as content with the idea that a journalism student, for example, could engage with satellite remote sensing as part of their reporting as we are with the idea of a student changing career paths because of their participation in the course. Ultimately, the course helps build marketable skills for internships and career opportunities across disciplines—indeed, some students have subsequently been accepted for internships at NASA and other institutions.

Fig. 3. Students’ responses to survey questions collected before and after their participation in the Observing Earth from Above course indicated that their sense of science identity increased as a result of participation in the course. Earth Sciences for Everyone

Through word of mouth and conference presentations, we are engaging broader networks of educators and expanding the use of Observing Earth from Above’s learning materials to colleges and universities across the country. In these efforts, we are emphasizing empowering early-career instructors at institutions that predominantly serve students from identities that have historically been underrepresented in the geosciences.

The materials, revised on the basis of initial evaluations and assessments, are now being used by instructors at the University of California, Riverside; Murray State University; California State University, Northridge; Northern Arizona University; Wesleyan University; Colorado State University; New Jersey Institute of Technology; and Texas A&M Corpus Christi, many of which are minority-serving institutions.

Students from Chapman University; California State University, Northridge; and the University of California, Riverside, who have used the Observing Earth from Above course materials pose for a photo during a recent visit to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Credit: Ghana Tirpude

This expansion has not been without challenges: Different schools have different academic calendars, curricular requirements, and class structures (e.g., with different meeting durations). And because adding new classes to course catalogs can be difficult and time-consuming, many instructors must blend our materials with other materials that they have to teach.

Highly modular, evidence-based materials that help address unmet needs are more flexible and likely of greater value for a broader range of educational settings than a full semester-long curriculum.

Highly modular, evidence-based materials that help address unmet needs are more flexible and likely of greater value for a broader range of educational settings than, for example, a full semester-long curriculum. Thus, we designed our lecture and tutorial content for application in 30-minute blocks to facilitate their widespread use.

Analytics data from fall 2024, the first semester that the materials were publicly available, indicate robust use. Nearly 400 users engaged with the website more than 1,500 times, and more than half of the visits were to the tutorials. Ongoing evaluation and assessment will help us understand how students with diverse identities and their instructors interact with the materials—and thus how they can be improved in the future.

Broadening diversity in the Earth sciences and expanding the relevance of the discipline in addressing environmental and societal challenges require transformative, evidence-based approaches that create equitable and inclusive opportunities for people of all identities to contribute. NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other institutions have expressed strong interest in the pedagogical framework of Observing Earth from Above as one such approach and in applying it to other missions beyond ECOSTRESS. And we welcome additional interest from other programs.

We are confident that Observing Earth from Above can become a model for creating accessible educational experiences designed around Earth science missions and applications that can be used widely across classrooms to engage a new generation of students.

Acknowledgment

Observing Earth from Above was developed with support from NASA ECOSTRESS mission grant 80NSSC23K0309.

References

Ballen, C. J., et al. (2017a), Enhancing diversity in undergraduate science: Self-efficacy drives performance gains with active learning, CBE Life Sci. Educ., 16(4), ar56, https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-12-0344.

Ballen, C. J., S. Salehi, and S. Cotner (2017b), Exams disadvantage women in introductory biology, PLOS One, 12(10), e0186419, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186419.

Bernard, R. E., and E. H. G. Cooperdock (2018), No progress on diversity in 40 years, Nat. Geosci., 11(5), 292–295, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0116-6.

Fisher, J. B., et al. (2020), ECOSTRESS: NASA’s next generation mission to measure evapotranspiration from the International Space Station, Water Resour. Res., 56(4), e2019WR026058, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026058.

Priniski, S. J., C. A. Hecht, and J. M. Harackiewicz (2018), Making learning personally meaningful: A new framework for relevance research, J. Exp. Educ., 86(1), 11–29, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2017.1380589.

Theobald, E. J., et al. (2020), Active learning narrows achievement gaps for underrepresented students in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 117(12), 6,476–6,483, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1916903117.

Tytler, R. (2020), STEM education for the twenty-first century, in Integrated Approaches to STEM Education: An International Perspective, edited by J. Anderson and Y. Li, pp. 21–43, Springer, Cham, Switzerland, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52229-2_3.

Author Information

Gregory R. Goldsmith (goldsmit@chapman.edu), Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, Calif.; Monae Verbeke, Institute for Learning Innovation, Beaverton, Ore.; Jeremy Forsythe, Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff; and Joshua B. Fisher, Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, Calif.

Citation: Goldsmith, G. R., M. Verbeke, J. Forsythe, and J. B. Fisher (2025), A diverse new generation of scientists observes Earth from above, Eos, 106, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025EO250111. Published on 16 April 2025. Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

For Climate and Livelihoods, Africa Bets Big on Solar Mini-Grids

EOS - Wed, 04/16/2025 - 13:16

This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine.

To the people of Mbiabet Esieyere and Mbiabet Udouba in Nigeria’s deep south, sundown would mean children doing their homework by the glow of kerosene lamps, and the faint thrum of generators emanating from homes that could afford to run them. Like many rural communities, these two villages of fishermen and farmers in the community of Mbiabet, tucked away in clearings within a dense palm forest, had never been connected to the country’s national electricity grid.

Most of the residents had never heard of solar power either. When, in 2021, a renewable-energy company proposed installing a solar “mini-grid” in their community, the villagers scoffed at the idea of the sun powering their homes. “We didn’t imagine that something [like this] can exist,” says Solomon Andrew Obot, a resident in his early 30s.

Solomon Andrew Obot poses for a portrait at the mini-grid site. Andrew Obot has lived in Mbiabet Esieyere his whole life. Before the arrival of the mini-grids, he acted as vice youth president. Today, he is the site manager. Credit: Victoria Uwemedimo

The small installation of solar panels, batteries and transmission lines proposed by the company Prado Power would service 180 households in Mbiabet Esieyere and Mbiabet Udouba, giving them significantly more reliable electricity for a fraction of the cost of diesel generators. Village leaders agreed to the installation, though many residents remained skeptical. But when the panels were set up in 2022, lights blinked on in the brightly painted two-room homes and tan mud huts dotted sparsely through the community. At a village meeting in September, locals erupted into laughter as they recalled walking from house to house, turning on lights and plugging in phone chargers. “I [was] shocked,” Andrew Obot says.

Like many African nations, Nigeria has lagged behind Global North countries in shifting away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward renewable energy. Solar power contributes just around 3 percent of the total electricity generated in Africa — though it is the world’s sunniest continent — compared to nearly 12 percent in Germany and 6 percent in the United States.

“Nigeria is actually like a poster child for mini-grid development across Africa.”

At the same time, in many African countries, solar power now stands to offer much more than environmental benefits. About 600 million Africans lack reliable access to electricity; in Nigeria specifically, almost half of the 230 million people have no access to electricity grids. Today, solar has become cheap and versatile enough to help bring affordable, reliable power to millions — creating a win-win for lives and livelihoods as well as the climate.

That’s why Nigeria is placing its bets on solar mini-grids — small installations that produce up to 10 megawatts of electricity, enough to power over 1,700 American homes — that can be set up anywhere. Crucially, the country has pioneered mini-grid development through smart policies to attract investment, setting an example for other African nations.

Thanks to its sunny, equatorial position, the African continent has an immense potential for solar power, shown here in kilowatt-hours. However, solar power contributes less than 3 percent of the electricity generated in Africa. Credit: Knowable Magazine, adapated from Solar Resource Map, CC BY-SA 4.0. Click image for larger version.

Nearly 120 mini-grids are now installed, powering roughly 50,000 households and reaching about 250,000 people. “Nigeria is actually like a poster child for mini-grid development across Africa,” says energy expert Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, managing director of EnergyInc Advisors, an energy infrastructure consulting firm.

Though it will take more work — and funding — to expand mini-grids across the continent, Nigeria’s experience demonstrates that they could play a key role in weaning African communities off fossil-fuel-based power. But the people who live there are more concerned with another, immediate benefit: improving livelihoods. Affordable, reliable power from Mbiabet’s mini-grid has already supercharged local businesses, as it has in many places where nonprofits like Clean Technology Hub have supported mini-grid development, says Ifeoma Malo, the organization’s founder. “We’ve seen how that has completely transformed those communities.”

The African energy transition takes shape

Together, Africa’s countries account for less than 5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and many experts, like Malo, take issue with the idea that they need to rapidly phase out fossil fuels; that task should be more urgent for the United States, China, India, the European countries and Russia, which create the bulk of emissions. Nevertheless, many African countries have set ambitious phase-out goals. Some have already turned to locally abundant renewable energy sources, like geothermal power from the Earth’s crust, which supplies nearly half of the electricity produced in Kenya, and hydropower, which creates more than 80 percent of the electricity in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Uganda.

But hydropower and geothermal work only where those resources naturally exist. And development of more geographically versatile power sources, like solar and wind, has progressed more slowly in Africa. Though solar is cheaper than fossil-fuel-derived electricity in the long term, upfront construction costs are often higher than they are for building new fossil-fuel power plants.

Getting loans to finance big-ticket energy projects is especially hard in Africa, too. Compared to Europe or the United States, interest rates for loans can be two to three times higher due to perceived risks — for instance, that cash-strapped utility companies, already struggling to collect bills from customers, won’t be able to pay back the loans. Rapid political shifts and currency fluctuations add to the uncertainty. To boot, some Western African nations such as Nigeria charge high tariffs on importing technologies such as solar panels. “There are challenges that are definitely hindering the pace at which renewable energy development could be scaling in the region,” says renewable energy expert Tim Reber of the Colorado-based US National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Some African countries are beginning to overcome these barriers and spur renewable energy development, notes Bruno Merven, an expert in energy systems modeling at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, coauthor of a look at renewable energy development in the Annual Review of Resource Economics. Super-sunny Morocco, for example, has phased out subsidies for gasoline and industrial fuel. South Africa is agreeing to buy power from new, renewable infrastructure that is replacing many coal plants that are now being retired.

More than 500 million Africans lack access to electricity, and where there is electricity, much of it comes from fossil fuels. Countries are taking different approaches to bring more renewable energy into the mix. Nigeria is focusing on mini-grids, which are especially useful in areas that lack national electricity grids. Morocco and South Africa are building large-scale solar power installations, while Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are making use of local renewable energy sources like geothermal and hydropower, respectively. Credit: Knowable Magazine, featuring information from the IEA Africa Energy Outlook 2019. Click image for larger version.

Nigeria, where only about a quarter of the national grid generates electricity and where many turn to generators for power, is leaning on mini-grids — since expanding the national grid to its remote communities, scattered across an area 1.3 times the size of Texas, would cost a prohibitive amount in the tens of billions of dollars. Many other countries are in the same boat. “The only way by which we can help to electrify the entire continent is to invest heavily in renewable energy mini-grids,” says Stephen Kansuk, the United Nations Development Program’s regional technical advisor for Africa on climate change mitigation and energy issues.

Experts praise the steps Nigeria has taken to spur such development. In 2016, the country’s Electricity Regulatory Commission provided legal guidelines on how developers, electricity distribution companies, regulators and communities can work together to develop the small grids. This was accompanied by a program through which organizations like the World Bank, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, Bezos Earth Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation could contribute funds, making mini-grid investments less financially risky for developers.

Solar power was also made more attractive by a recent decision by Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remove a long-standing government subsidy on petroleum products. Fossil-fuel costs have been soaring since, for vehicles as well as the generators that many communities rely on. Nigeria has historically been Africa’s largest crude oil producer, but fuel is now largely unaffordable for the average Nigerian, including those living in rural areas, who often live on less than $2 a day. In the crude-oil-rich state of Akwa Ibom, where the Mbiabet villages are located, gasoline was 1,500 naira per liter (around $1) at the time of publishing. “Now that subsidies have come off petrol,” says Akinkugbe-Filani, “we’re seeing a lot more people transition to alternative sources of energy.”

Mini-grids take off

The women, it turned out, were fascinated by the technology and how it could help them, especially at night — to fetch water from streams, to use the bathroom and to keep their children safe from snakes.

To plan a mini-grid in Nigeria, developers often work with government agencies that have mapped out ideal sites: sunny places where there are no plans to extend the national grid, ensuring that there’s a real power need.

The next step is getting communities on board, which can take months. Malo recalls a remote Indigenous village in the hills of Adamawa state in Nigeria’s northeast, where locals have preserved their way of life for hundreds of years and are wary of outsiders. Her team had almost given up trying to liaise with reluctant male community leaders and decided to try reaching out to the women. The women, it turned out, were fascinated by the technology and how it could help them, especially at night — to fetch water from streams, to use the bathroom and to keep their children safe from snakes. “We find that if we convince them, they’re able to go and convince their husbands,” Malo says.

The Mbiabet community took less convincing. Residents were drawn to the promise of cheap, reliable electricity and its potential to boost local businesses.

Like many other mini-grids, the one in Mbiabet benefited from a small grant, this one from the Rocky Mountain Institute, a US-based nonprofit focused on renewable energy adoption. The funds allowed residents to retain 20 percent ownership of the mini-grid and reduced upfront costs for Prado Power, which built the panels with the help of local laborers.

On a day in late September, it’s a sunny afternoon, though downpours from the days before have made their imprint on the ground. There are no paved roads and today, the dirt road leading through the tropical forest into the cluster of villages is unnavigable by car. At one point, we build an impromptu bridge of grass and vegetation across a sludgy impasse; the last stretch of the journey is made on foot. It would be costly and labor-intensive to extend the national grid here.

Mbiabet is so remote that no paved roads lead to it. But an unusual sight reveals that it is more “connected” than most communities like it — there are power lines threaded through the bush. Credit: Victoria Uwemedimo

Palm trees give way to tin roofs propped up by wooden poles, and Andrew Obot is waiting at the meeting point. He was Mbiabet’s vice youth president when Prado Power first contacted the community; now he’s the site manager. He steers his okada — a local motorbike — up the bumpy red dirt road to go see the solar panels.

Along the way, we see transmission lines threading through thick foliage. “That’s the solar power,” shouts Andrew Obot over the drone of the okada engine. All the lines were built by Prado Power to supply households in the two villages.

We enter a grassy clearing where three rows of solar panels sit behind wire gates. Collectively, the 39 panels have a capacity of over 20 kilowatts — enough to power just one large, energy-intensive American household but more than enough for the lightbulbs, cooker plates and fans in the 180 households in Mbiabet Esieyere and Mbiabet Udouba.

Whereas before, electricity was more conservatively used, now it is everywhere. An Afrobeats tune blares from a small barbershop on the main road winding through Mbiabet Esieyere. Inside, surrounded by walls plastered with shiny posters of trending hairstyles — including a headshot of popular musician Davido with the tagline “BBC — Big Boyz Cutz” — two young girls sit on a bench near a humming fan, waiting for their heads to be shaved.

The salon owner, Christian Aniefiok Asuquo, started his business two years ago when he was 16, just before the panels were installed. Back then, his appliances were powered by a diesel generator, which he would fill with 2,000 naira worth (around $1.20) of fuel daily. This would last around an hour. Now, he spends just 2,000 naira a month on electricity. “I feel so good,” he says, and his customers, too, are happy. He used to charge 500 naira ($0.30) per haircut, but now charges 300 naira ($0.18) and still makes a profit. He has more customers these days.

For many Mbiabet residents, “it’s an overall boost in their economic development,” says Suleiman Babamanu, the Rocky Mountain Institute’s program director in Nigeria. Also helping to encourage residents to take full advantage of their newly available power is the installation of an “agro-processing hub,” equipped with crop-processing machines and a community freezer to store products like fish. Provided by the company Farm Warehouse in partnership with Prado Power, the hub is leased out to locals. It includes a grinder and fryer to process cassava — the community’s primary crop — into garri, a local food staple, which many of the village women sell to neighboring communities and at local markets.

The women are charged around 200 naira ($0.12) to process a small basin of garri from beginning to end. Sarah Eyakndue Monday, a 24-year-old cassava farmer, used to spend three to four hours processing cassava each day; it now takes her less than an hour. “It’s very easy,” she says with a laugh. She produces enough garri during that time to earn up to 50,000 naira ($30.25) a week — almost five times what she was earning before.

“Everywhere is … brighter than before.”

Prado Power also installed a battery system to save some power for nighttime (there’s a backup diesel generator should batteries become depleted during multiple overcast days). That has proved especially valuable to women in Mbiabet Esieyere and Mbiabet Udouba, who now feel safer. “Everywhere is … brighter than before,” says Eyakndue Monday.

Other African communities have experienced similar benefits, according to Renewvia Energy, a US-based solar company. In a recent company-funded survey, 2,658 Nigerian and Kenyan households and business owners were interviewed before and after they got access to Renewvia’s mini-grids. Remarkably, the median income of Kenyan households had quadrupled. Instead of spending hours each day walking kilometers to collect drinking water, many communities were able to install electricity-powered wells or pumps, along with water purifiers.

“With all of that extra time, women in the community were able to either start their own businesses or just participate in businesses that already exist,” says Renewvia engineer Nicholas Selby, “and, with that, gain some income for themselves.”

Navigating mini-grid challenges

Solar systems require regular maintenance — replacing retired batteries, cleaning, and repairing and addressing technical glitches over the 20- to 25-year lifetime of a panel. Unless plans for care are built into a project, they risk failure. In some parts of India, for example, thousands of mini-grids installed by the government in recent decades have fallen into disrepair, according to a report provided to the Washington Post. Typically, state agencies have little long-term incentive to maintain solar infrastructure, Kansuk says.

Kansuk says this is less likely in situations where private companies that make money off the grids help to fund them, encouraging them to install high-quality devices and maintain them. It also helps to train locals with engineering skills so they can maintain the panels themselves — companies like Renewvia have done this at their sites. Although Prado Power hasn’t been able to provide such training to locals in Mbiabet or their other sites, they recruit locals like Andrew Obot to work as security guards, site managers and construction workers.

Over the longer term, demographic shifts may also leave some mini-grids in isolated areas abandoned — as in northern Nigeria, for instance, where banditry and kidnapping are forcing rural populations toward more urban settings. “That’s become a huge issue,” Malo says. Partly for this reason, some developers are focusing on building mini-grids in regions that are less prone to violence and have higher economic activity — often constructing interconnected mini-grids that supply multiple communities.

Eventually, those close enough to the national grid will likely be connected to the larger system, says Chibuikem Agbaegbu, a Nigeria-based climate and energy expert of the Africa Policy Research Institute. They can send their excess solar-sourced electricity into the main grid, thus making a region’s overall energy system greener and more reliable.

The biggest challenge for mini-grids, however, is cost. Although they tend to offer cheaper, more reliable electricity compared to fossil-fuel-powered generators, it is still quite expensive for many people — and often much more costly than power from national grids, which is frequently subsidized by African governments. Costs can be even higher when communities sprawl across large areas that are expensive to connect.

Mini-grid companies have to charge relatively high rates in order to break even, and many communities may not be buying enough power to make a mini-grid worthwhile for the developers — for instance, Kansuk says, if residents want electricity only for lighting and to run small household appliances.

“For you to be able to really transform lives in rural communities, you need to be able to improve the business viability — both for the mini-grid and for the community.”

Kansuk adds that this is why developers like Prado Power still rely on grants or other funding sources to subsidize construction costs so they can charge locals affordable prices for electricity. Another solution, as evidenced in Mbiabet, is to introduce industrial machinery and equipment in tandem with mini-grids to increase local incomes so that people can afford the electricity tariffs.

“For you to be able to really transform lives in rural communities, you need to be able to improve the business viability — both for the mini-grid and for the community,” says Babamanu. The Rocky Mountain Institute is part of an initiative that identifies suitable electrical products, from cold storage to rice mills to electric vehicle chargers, and supports their installation in communities with the mini-grids.

Spreading mini-grids across the continent

Energy expertsbelieve that these kinds of solutions will be key for expanding mini-grids across Africa. Around 60 million people in the continent gained access to electricity through mini-grids between 2009 and 2019, in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Senegal, and the United Nations Development Program is working with a total of 21 African countries, Kansuk says, including Mali, Niger and Somalia, to incentivize private companies to develop mini-grids there.

But it takes more than robust policies to help mini-grids thrive. Malo says it would help if Western African countries removed import tariffs for solar panels, as many governments in Eastern Africa have done. And though Agbaegbu estimates that Nigeria has seen over $900 million in solar investments since 2018 — and the nation recently announced $750 million more through a multinationally funded program that aims to provide over 17.5 million Nigerians with electricity access — it needs more. “If you look at what is required versus what is available,” says Agbaegbu, “you find that there’s still a significant gap.”

Many in the field argue that such money should come from more industrialized, carbon-emitting countries to help pay for energy development in Global South countries in ways that don’t add to the climate problem; some also argue for funds to compensate for damages caused by climate impacts, which hit these countries hardest. At the 2024 COP29 climate change conference, wealthy nations set a target of $300 billion in annual funding for climate initiatives in other countries by 2035 — three times more than what they had previously pledged. But African countries alone need an estimated 200 billion per year by 2030 to meet their energy goals, according to the International Energy Agency.

Meanwhile, Malo adds, it’s important that local banks in countries like Nigeria also invest in mini-grid development, to lessen dependence on foreign financing. That’s especially the case in light of current freezes in USAID funding, she says, which has resulted in a loss of money for solar projects in Nigeria and other nations.

With enough support, Reber says, mini-grids — along with rooftop and larger solar projects — could make a sizable contribution to lowering carbon emissions in Africa. Those who already have the mini-grids seem convinced they’re on the path toward a better, economically richer future, and Babamanu knows of communities that have written letters to policymakers to express their interest.

Eyakndue Monday, the cassava farmer from Mbiabet, doesn’t keep her community’s news a secret. Those she has told now come to her village to charge their phones and watch television. “I told a lot of my friends that our village is … better because of the light,” she says. “They were just happy.”

—Victoria Uwemedimo and Katrina Zimmer, Knowable Magazine

This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, a nonprofit publication dedicated to making scientific knowledge accessible to all. Sign up for Knowable Magazine’s newsletter.

Read the original article here.

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