Often, newly trained village technicians leave their communities:
with their new skills, they are now in a better position to find
employment in urban areas [30,24]. Similarly, users are reluctant
to pay for maintenance and repair, and fail to set aside appropriate
funds in advance [4,25]. Accordingly, just as with diesel generators,
renewable energy systems often fall into disuse when
repair is needed, but no technician and/or no spare parts are
available, a problem for remote rural communities in particular
[23]. As Fig. 6 indicates, donors seem to recognise the challenge
and put more emphasis on ‘software', that is, capacity-building
and training.