- Solar energy, which researchers say offers much potential to meet the Democratic Republic of Congo’s energy needs, remains largely unaffordable and out of reach for Indigenous Batwa people and rural residents.
- Mongabay visited villages off the power grid in the DRC’s Tanganyika province, where Indigenous people and local communities aspire to have access to electricity and embrace a new way of life.
- As electricity remains out of reach, despite a handful of solar panels, most rely on cutting wood from forests and savannah for firewood and charcoal — spiking deforestation in the region.
- Researchers and environmentalists suggest government subsidies, favorable taxes, and investing in cheaper Chinese solar panels to make solar energy more accessible and affordable for Indigenous and rural communities. Hydropower dams, say some, also offer cheaper long-term solutions but can come with environmental costs.
LUBUMBASHI — When night falls in the Batwa village of Lukwangulo, only the local chief’s house is illuminated.
In this village in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Tanganyika province, just four residents own a solar panel. Roughly the size of a small notebook and mounted on a roof, the panel serves as the primary source of electricity in Lukwangulo. Its use is limited to charging 12V batteries, powering cell phones, or playing radios.
For cooking and other energy needs, the village’s 500 households rely on gathering wood from the forest.
This is the reality for many Indigenous Batwa villages and rural areas across the country — without access to the electric grid, they must turn to the forest for sources of energy. Yet solar power and panels, which could provide a more sustainable, faster, and more substantial alternative, remain out of reach — especially for Batwa people who are striving to move away from their nomadic life and adopt a new way of living.
For Mwayuma Mufaume, a 20-year-old Batwa mother, access to electricity is essential. She explains that she often has to change her baby’s diapers in the dark at night. “The children also need to study. That’s important. But how are they supposed to study in the dark?” she asks.
Some see solar panels as a solution to the government’s failure to expand the national grid to more rural areas. This technology, which can require minimal infrastructure investment and help reduce pressure on forests, is versatile and avoids controversies linked to other energy projects, like hydroelectric dams. The region also offers excellent conditions for photovoltaic solar power.
However, experts say the sector still faces significant challenges.
Access to electricity from solar panels remains unaffordable for many in this region due to widespread poverty, even as globally, the cost of photovoltaic solar energy declines. Some residents, like Feza Mukeina, who purchased a solar panel for himself, are constantly asked to recharge appliances. In exchange, Feza receives food items such as wine, cassava, and meat, which others share during baraza — the term for community meetings in the local language, Kiswahili.
“I paid for my little solar panel myself. We use it to light our house,” Feza explains.
The situation is similar in the Batwa village of Kawama, less than 30 km (20 miles) from Kalemie in Tanganyika province. There, just two solar panels serve around 200 households. “We hope to earn more money, but we can’t. What do we do? What are we supposed to do?” asks Shabani Bilofa, a resident of Kawama.
Shabani’s life is a constant balance between trekking through the forest and savannah in search of food for his family and sharing the fruits of his hunts with those closest to him. As for his future, he rarely thinks about it, though he hopes one day to find work and earn a salary.
Electricity or makala for the Batwa people?
Access to electricity remains highly unequal between urban and rural areas in the DRC. According to ARE, the country’s electricity regulatory authority, only 7.4% of Congolese people have access to electricity.
In remote rural areas, “this figure drops dramatically to just 1%,” making the DRC among the least electrified countries in the world and “where electricity is a rare luxury,” according to ANSER, the country’s National Rural and Peri-urban Electrification and Energy Services Agency. Instead, energy derived from wood accounts for 93% of total energy consumption in the DRC.
Against this backdrop, who will finance solar energy for rural areas and Indigenous communities in the DRC and across Africa?
In the two localities visited by Mongabay, firewood remained the only source of energy collected from the forest and savannah. Some residents also occasionally use charcoal, known as makala in Kiswahili. Once, communities could sustainably harvest wood, but energy needs have increased. As villages expand, reliance on these fuels increases pressure on forests and is one of the leading drivers of deforestation in Tanganyika province. According to a study by OFSAC, which monitors forests using satellite imaging, the Kalemie region lost more than 105,200 hectares (260,000 acres) of forest cover between 2010 and 2022.
Across the province, 22,900 hectares (56,500 acres) of primary rainforest were lost between 2002 and 2023, according to satellite data from Global Forest Watch. This accounts for 4.8% of the province’s total tree cover loss and 8% of its primary rainforest loss.
Culturally, some women believe that food cooked over firewood has a distinct and cherished flavor. However, others, like Feza Mukeina, say they would gladly use hotplates or ovens if they had access to electricity.
For historian Danny Kayeye, “electricity is a factor in community development” that transforms daily habits. In North Kivu’s Rutshuru territory, for example, Batwa people are adopting household appliances and relying less on firewood.
Who will bring electricity to rural areas and the Batwa?
The real challenge with solar-generated electricity is its ability to provide energy-intensive services at a low cost, say researchers.
“For cooking, for example, low-capacity domestic power plants, which are more affordable, simply can’t keep up,” explains Jean-Paul Katond, who holds a doctorate in electricity and is a professor at the University of Lubumbashi.
Solar energy from cheap solar panels isn’t very practical for cooking, he adds. “We need to explore other solutions to reduce the pressure on wood for charcoal production.”
Despite their relatively affordable cost, even the most basic solar setups remain out of reach for most farmers. The cheapest options of solar panel and rechargeable battery cost at least $50 and $80, respectively. Meanwhile, purchasing a 3,000W domestic solar power system in Lubumbashi, capable of lighting an entire house and running a mid-sized freezer and two TVs, costs at least $2,500, according to a manager from a local solar start-up interviewed by Mongabay. For comparison, the average Congolese person earns just $530 per year.
Some environmentalists, researchers, and investors suggest China, a world leader in renewable energy and Africa’s largest trading partner, could help supply cheaper solar power and panels to countries on the continent, particularly for the smaller-scale energy needs of rural communities.
Jean-Paul Katond says he believes the solution for rural areas and households lies in incentive policies — such as subsidies or reduced taxes on solar equipment — to make these solutions more accessible. He also stresses the importance of raising awareness so that communities take ownership of these projects by working together.
“That way, we have capable people in the community to handle minor breakdowns and maintain the equipment,” he explains. Katond envisages two types: lighter systems, which farmers can be trained to maintain, and more complex systems, which require professional technicians.
However, this technology remains expensive compared to other energy sources, such as hydroelectricity, even though solar power provides faster solutions.
“Solar energy is a short-term project. You can meet demand fairly quickly [compared to hydroelectricity]. But the cost is still relatively high. I know that, today, the kilowatt-hour generated from hydro is generally cheaper than that by solar. This means communities will often have to pay a premium to access energy more quickly than they would through hydroelectric projects,” explains Jean-Paul Katond.
Nevertheless, while hydropower may be cheaper than solar energy in the long run, it remains more expensive or entirely inaccessible for rural communities compared to simply gathering wood from the forest.
Virunga Energy, a subsidiary of the Virunga Foundation, manages Congo’s Virunga National Park, yet it serves only 33,000 subscribers out of 6.6 million people in North Kivu province. In Lukwangulo, a power line from the Bendera hydroelectric station runs nearby toward Kalemie, but the village itself remains unconnected to the grid.
Hydropower also comes with its own controversies. Hydroelectric dams built in forests can disrupt ecosystems and displace communities when land is flooded for new projects. The Grand Inga dams in the DRC—the world’s largest hydroelectric project, with the potential to power much of Africa—have faced heavy criticism for their environmental impact, their potential to alter the course of the Congo River, and their failure (so far) to address the energy needs of rural populations.
“You have electricity! Why can’t we?”
For nearly a decade, solar initiatives have been expanding across Africa, with mini solar power plants supplying electricity to hospitals, schools, and laboratories. These projects are often funded by third parties or international organizations. However, local community-led initiatives remain underdeveloped or even largely unknown to experts.
According to Aimée Muteni, Vice President of the Cadre de Concertation de la Société Civile du Tanganyika, the traditionally nomadic Batwa people cannot realistically access electricity without first settling in one place, which she believes would improve their economic conditions. “I think electricity should come after they’ve settled. First, they need basic infrastructure that respects their dignity,” Muteni explains.
For Mukalay Ngoyi, head of the Lukwangulo village block, electricity is essential for the Bawa. “If someone tells you that we Bawa don’t want to use electricity, that’s a lie. You come from the city — you have electricity, you have lighting. Why you and not us? We’re human beings like you, and we need electricity too,” he insists.
Mukalay is among the few dignitaries in his village who benefit from having their appliances recharged by the village chief. He believes that access to electricity would significantly improve the lives of his community, especially for school-age children.
But, while solar energy is “an opportunity for the [Global] South,” according to Jean-Paul Katond, its expansion is constrained by the financial limitations of projects aimed at rural areas.
Without public funding or subsidies, the most economically disadvantaged Indigenous populations in these neglected regions, such as those in the DRC, will likely remain without access to electricity for the foreseeable future.
This story was first published here in French on January 23, 2025.
Banner image: A woman carrying a solar panel in Yangambi, DRC. Image by Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
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