Solar Electrification: A Solution For Socio-Economic Development Of Rural Household: Empirical Evidence From District Sibi, Balochistan, Pakistan

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Prof. Dr. Abdul Naeem , Prof. Dr. Syed Mushtaq Ahmed Shah , Ms Fazeela Marri

Abstract

Electricity is considered as the basic element for acceleration of social and economic development pace at urban as well as rural level. Due to high electricity demand at urban area the government of Pakistan is fail to fulfill the entire electricity demand of the urban areas because of that fact the rural areas have lack of access to seek electricity from the national grid.


The rural population of the Balochistan Province have resolved their electricity shortage problem by seeking electricity from renewable energy sources by using natural means. Majority people of urban as well as rural areas have solved their problem by self-installation of solar system.


In this regard present study is conducted in rural areas of district Sibi in Balochistan to investigate how much solar systems are successful in socio-economic development of household’s livelihood.  With the help of a cross sectional survey design; the primary data is collected from the 260 randomly selected household who have installed their own solar system for the last two years or more prior to the survey having no access to the national grid electricity at all. The data was collected through structured questionnaires by using a purposeful and convenient sampling techniques.


From the results of the study it is infer that most of the respondents are satisfy from the performance of the solar system except very few respondents belong to the poor population. The results indicate that installation of solar system has positively impacted business growth, income and assets level. It also enhanced their contacts with the local businessman which results in increasing number of their customers. Their children also benefiting from the solar system as they are now giving more time to their studies due to which their educational level is improving as compared to the past when they have not installed the solar system.  This shows respondents are able in the establishment of sustainable business.

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