There has been a rash of fake solar panels making their way into
Osbert Tindimwebwa of Uganda Solar admits that the market is flooded by sub-standard solar panels. Tindimwebwa has called for the government to make a concerted effort to stop the flood of sub-standard panels and has urged buyers to beware.
"The industry needs some regulations, but sadly, even our umbrella organization, the Uganda Renewable Energy Association is in limbo. It died out as soon as the donor project phased out. It is now a free-for-all business," he says.
According to Tindimwebwa the perpetrators seem to target the well-known brands and duplicate stickers to increase the price of the solar panels. He says they mainly add brand labels and change the 14 watt panel labels to 40 watts and the 50 watt panels to 100 watts and then sell them to unsuspecting customers.
"They tell customers that the 100-watt panel can work for six hours, but when the customer reaches the village, the panels cannot stand the time. Interestingly, when they go to report the anomaly, these fellows insist on funny clauses in [the] sale agreement, thereby cheating the customers [of] what rightly belongs to them. A professional company cannot engage in such practice," he notes.
He advises that if solar panel customers want genuine products, they should contact the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSFU) and ask for the solar companies operating under the Business Uganda Development Scheme-Energy for Rural Transformation (BUDS-ERT).