Energy resource centres (ERCs) as vehicles for extracting higher benefits from solar power in rural and suburban areas of developing countries (the case of Uganda)

The study addresses the question of how Energy Resource Centres (ERCs) in developing countries can be designed and deployed as vehicles to support more productive and higher value use of solar power. It deploys a mixed method approach that produces both qualitative in-depth insights and a generalisable quantitative aspect. ERCs emerge as an innovative configuration that can significantly support efforts to attain higher value use of solar power, especially in rural and suburban locations. The high confidence expressed in their usefulness by both end users and firms offers an opportunity to develop and apply them multidimensionally. They offer a space for locally-embedded innovation and sustainable application to challenges of development and tackling poverty. The high response to offers to use them for training for both firms and end users suggests further they could also open new opportunities to apply open, online and distance learning alternatives to traditional face to face models. This can in turn have broader learning impact in other areas of strategic engagement in rural communities.