Put solar service in the essential provisions list

A key lesson from the Covid-19 pandemic is the virtue of self-sufficiency. Lockdowns and curfews are roads that lead us to this virtue.

In times of war, the global import and export market is under siege. The virus pandemic is a war like we have never had. It’s about time that we rely on renewables even the more in terms of both food and energy self-sufficiency.

Aristotle laid down two conditions which happiness must fulfill: It must be perfect, and it must be self-sufficient. He defined the self-sufficient as ‘that which on its own makes life worthy of choice and lacking in nothing’.

What Greek calls it autarkes, the Swahili calls it kujitegemea. Self-sufficiency is the new currency. For once, we are made aware of concepts such as quarantine, isolation and social distance.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a toll on all areas of economic activity. From the moment businesses transferred their workforce to work at home and, to some extent, people began observing ‘social distancing’, consumer behaviour changed naturally.

Goods and service providers who were at our beck and call have been forced switch to new formats of contact with consumers or altogether new product lines and services to avoid being lost in what is now a shell of our normal economy.

Renewable energy

There are certainly areas of economic strength and creativity in Kenya: Medical research, face masks and sanitiser producers, pharmaceuticals, online grocery delivery providers, video conferencing apps. Mostly new economies are flourishing as islands of profitability in sea of losses.

The force that is ‘global social exclusion’ is becoming lethal for businesses that rely on in-person labour and customers or the so-called brick and mortar companies, and in some other lines of business it provides enormous gaps for profitability.

Companies that embrace the hopefully short-lived culture of social distance, quarantine and isolation will be the vanguard of our economy as Covid-19 curve is shifting over recent weeks to become still steeper, entire companies have begun switching to virtual at home environment.

We have a near-total collapse of many industries, from tourism and air travel, retail and many industries are undergoing swift business model changes to soften the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The renewable energy industry is making adjustments like all other industries; the customer interface is being reduced to an e-commerce platform with installation and service remaining the only person-to-person contact point.

Renewable energy falls squarely into the new economy bracket and has fitting products that can ensure more comfort to self-quarantined consumers.

The renewables industry should be added to the list of essential services to enable its technicians, who provide the same services as the utilities, be included in the list of essential services and excluded from the curfew and lockdown.

Ms Hassan is partnership manager, Solarnow. [email protected]