Household adoption dynamics of solar home systems in Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

To enhance energy access in Kinshasa's Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it is crucial to understand the DRC's energy space in depth. The article presents specific data from active end-users, consisting of structured interviews (n = 600) and 48 focus groups (n = 576) across 24 municipalities in Kinshasa's DRC. The paper also highlights the power supply quality in DRC, policies, and governance. These results are analyzed using linear regression and calculating R-value to determine the linkage between the variables such as income and consumption of energies. The R-value obtained was 0.5869, implying that income level and energy consumption from other energies are closely related. Therefore, good governance, government policy implementation, awareness of solar energy consumption, and access should be enhanced to enable the populace to tap into the favorable weather in DRC to ensure that the population within the municipalities access solar energy as a source of clean energy.