Mauritius: Solar Water Heating Grants in Support Low-Income Households

To support renewable energy development in Mauritius, the Ministry of Renewable Energy and Public Utilities developed a policy to catalyze deployment of solar water heaters (SWH) through the provision of grants. To align with broader national development goals, in 2016 the program will target vulnerable and lower income households and communities to enable sustainable energy access. Clean Energy Solutions Center experts, through the “Ask an Expert” service, supported improvements to this next phase of SWH grant program through a market readiness assessment (Clean Energy Solutions Center 2015a).

One key lesson learned from the program involved the need for policy stability, system requirements, and robust analysis of appropriate incentive levels. Major interest when the program was launched in 2008, coupled with high incentive levels, led to a rush of projects before the program had fully established market capacity and system requirements to ensure high quality projects. However, since that time, improvements to the program have led to highly successful outcomes with over 90 MWh deployed through SWH and has led to significant cost savings and reduced emissions on the island.

Sources: Republic of Mauritius 2015; Epp 2010