![]() ![]() The women’s 20-day training also covered business skills and finance, in addition to four days of orientation on a microgrid model. “I learned technical skills, such as charging batteries, connecting wires, measuring power using an Avometer, converting power from DC current to AC current and checking the capacity in KW,” says Amena Yahya Dawali, a technical officer at the Abs station. ![]() In setting up its project, the UNDP provided seed grant money and trained the women in Abs and the young men in Bani Qais and Lahij to establish, manage and maintain solar microgrid businesses to bring electricity to their communities. In this context, solar microgrids, which can be small or medium, are the way forward.” With no income, no jobs and oil price rising, the rural communities would always struggle to stand on their own feet. “These rural areas are the heart of Yemen’s economy where agriculture, water, public services and the local economy largely depends on fossil fuels. “Existing power plants are no longer functional in Yemen and the current energy-transportation infrastructure doesn’t extend to rural areas,” explained Kumar. While diesel costs $0.42 an hour, solar energy costs only $0.02, making it more affordable for Yemenis. Now, these three communities have access to sustainable energy and their electricity bills have been “cut by 65 percent”, according to Arvind Kumar, the UNDP’s Yemen project manager. This is the first time in Yemen that microgrids have been introduced to both produce and sell solar power – and they are believed to be the first privately run energy sources in the country.īefore the arrival of the grids, rural communities were reliant on diesel generators – polluting, expensive and susceptible to sudden shifts in the price of fuel. In addition, COVID-19, which is now rampant in Yemen, is deepening the crisis. Five years on, more than 80 percent of the population needs some sort of assistance and more than half of rural communities do not have access to energy as fossil fuel prices continue to surge and embargoes make fuel even more difficult to obtain. “And we are now contributing to the family monthly budget to cover food and other necessities.” The site of the solar microgrid project in Abs Producing and selling powerīefore Yemen’s war started in 2015, finding food and fuel was already a struggle. “The project has built our self-reliance, confidence in participating in society and broken the red line in dealing with men,” she adds. Now, they want their women to participate and succeed like the microgrid girls,” says Iman Ghaleb Al-Hamli, director of the station. They come to the station and ask us if there are opportunities. ![]() But now, our community is respecting us, as we are business owners. “At first, they made fun of us – that we want to do men’s work. Yemen ranks at the bottom of the UN gender equality index and there are very limited work opportunities for women, especially in rural areas.īut for the group managing this project in Abs, the work has been transformative. Abs solar microgrid co-owners repair solar panels Now, the solar microgrid provides the community with cheaper, clean, and renewable energy, while also tackling another major issue in this part of Yemen – helping women earn a stable income and gain new professional skills. “Most people used a flashlight or a five-watt bulb on a small battery,” she says. ![]() The other two – located in the Bani Qais district near Abs, and in the Lahij governorate in the southern part of the country – are managed by 10 young men each 30 percent of them are people who are displaced.īefore the Abs station was built, Othman says, the high price of commercial electricity meant her community was unable to access it. The Abs station is the only one run entirely by women. The project is one of three the United Nations Development Programme helped put in place in front line off-grid communities in the country. Last year, Othman and nine other women in Abs set up a solar microgrid, just 32km (20 miles) from the front line in a war that has killed tens of thousands and left more than 3.3 million people displaced. “Although we are educated and university graduates, we had no decision-making power and couldn’t work in any field.”īut now a new project is helping shift those norms. “The role of women was housework only,” laments Huda Othman Hassan, a young woman from Abs, a rural district in the north of Yemen, near the border with Saudi Arabia. ![]()
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