Gebreslassie Mulualem G
Center of Energy, Ethiopian Institute of Technology-Mekelle Mekelle University Mekelle Ethiopia.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Energy Environ. 2022 Mar-Apr;11(2):e418. doi: 10.1002/wene.418. Epub 2021 Jul 1.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on social, economic, and political situations of all countries around the world with no sight to its end. Business sectors such as solar distributors, which have been instrumental in supporting the governments' ambitious universal electrification programs, have been negatively affected by the pandemic. The main aim of this paper is therefore to explore and conduct a comparative assessment before and during the COVID-19 pandemic of the key challenges of solar-based businesses in Ethiopia focusing on the distributors and installers and to provide policy recommendations. Qualitative and quantitative assessments were employed during this study. The results show that before the pandemic, finding a skilled workforce, gaining a technical knowledge of the technology, competing in the market, and lack of consumer awareness and initial investment were the key challenges. The importation of solar technologies has been halted by the arrival of the COVID-19 exacerbating existing challenges and threatening the very existence of the businesses. The impact of the pandemic on income levels of end-users of solar technologies, together with the lack of sufficient supply of technologies to the businesses, most of the businesses are forced to lay off their employees deepening the unemployment rate and, in some cases, forcing businesses to be closed. These circumstances affect economic development and dents the progress made so far in facilitating energy access to remote communities. To protect these vulnerable but very essential small businesses, necessary interventions are recommended. This article is categorized under:Photovoltaics > Economics and Policy.
新冠疫情正在对世界各国的社会、经济和政治局势产生前所未有的影响，且看不到尽头。太阳能经销商等商业部门在支持政府雄心勃勃的普及电气化计划方面发挥了重要作用，但却受到了疫情的负面影响。因此，本文的主要目的是探讨并对埃塞俄比亚太阳能企业在新冠疫情之前和期间面临的关键挑战进行比较评估，重点关注经销商和安装商，并提供政策建议。本研究采用了定性和定量评估方法。结果表明，在疫情之前，寻找熟练劳动力、掌握技术的专业知识、在市场上竞争、缺乏消费者意识以及初始投资不足是关键挑战。新冠疫情的到来导致太阳能技术进口停滞，加剧了现有挑战，并威胁到企业的生存。疫情对太阳能技术终端用户收入水平的影响，再加上企业技术供应不足，大多数企业被迫裁员，失业率进一步上升，在某些情况下，还迫使企业关闭。这些情况影响了经济发展，削弱了迄今为止在促进偏远社区能源获取方面取得的进展。为保护这些脆弱但至关重要的小企业，建议采取必要的干预措施。本文分类如下：光伏>经济与政策。
