ABSTRACT

This chapter explores one national program there intended to distribute Solar Home Systems (SHS) to rural school teachers known as the Teacher's Solar Lighting Project (TSLP). It analyzes the design and implementation of the TSLP before moving into the reasons it failed to achieve its targets. It explains the failure of the TSLP in purely political and economic terms, looking at technical, social, and cultural dimensions as well. Papua New Guinea (PNG) represents one country where energy poverty is acute. PNG relies significantly on imported energy fuels. PNG, along with other small island developing states such as Kiribati, Vanuatu, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, and East Timor, is greatly dependent on energy imports. One independent assessment calculated in countries such as PNG, classroom light levels are as low as two percent of western standards and that teachers frequently grade homework with light levels one percent of western standards.