Solar photovoltaic (PV) will play the leading role in addressing off‐grid electricity access; it can be applied almost anywhere and used in a wide range of applications for households, businesses, institutions and communities. However, to fully exploit this opportunity, off‐grid markets that need these solutions need to be effectively penetrated. This article focuses on delivery models for off‐grid solar PV solutions and how they address barriers such as awareness, acceptance, access and affordability. It is based on a survey of 13 solar PV businesses in East Africa, supported by the Energy and Environment Partnership Programme and implementing the following delivery models: Retail, Pay‐As‐You‐Go (PAYG), Consumer financing, Mini‐grid and Fee‐for‐service. The survey is complemented by supporting literature and incorporates experiences from a University of Oslo research project on a village scale energy access model in Kenya and case studies of solar PV mini‐grids in Senegal and India. Experiences from implementation of the different models are analyzed and generic descriptions provided. The models are compared to illustrate their suitability and effectiveness for delivering different levels of energy access. Retail and PAYG models are identified as effective at reaching scale, while the mini‐grid and fee‐for‐service models demonstrate good potential to affordably and sustainably deliver a wider range of electricity access. The limitations of conventional rural electrification strategies are also discussed and the potential to incorporate some delivery models into electrification programs assessed. This article is categorized under: Photovoltaics > Economics and Policy Photovoltaics > Systems and Infrastructure Energy and Development > Economics and Policy Solar Heating and Cooling > Economics and Policy
This article presents new empirical research on what it takes to provide enduring access to affordable, reliable and useful electricity services for all. We analyze and synthesize the long-term experiences with three different systems for village-scale solar power supply in India, Senegal and Kenya. Since this scale of electricity provision forms part of village infrastructure, it requires particular types of knowledge, policies and support mechanisms. This research therefore investigates how village-scale solar systems can be designed, implemented, sustained and replicated in ways that make them accessible and useful for the community members. Drawing on a socio-technical and practice-oriented approach, we show that the electricity system's degree of adaptedness to its social context affects many important qualities of the system such as the relevance of the available electricity services for the people, the system's operational and economic sustainability and the potential for replication. Achieving such adaptation notably requires a flexible approach on the part of implementers, funders and local actors before, during and after implementation. We also show the need for institutionalization of decentralized electricity provision, discuss the current ambiguities in policies, regulations and funding mechanisms for villagescale solar power, and provide recommendations to policy makers and donors.
This article presents research on the transfer of sustainable energy innovations between countries of the global South from a socio-technical perspective. The analysis identifies factors important for how a deliberate transfer process may unfold. It is based on monitoring a case of South-South transfer of experiences with village-level solar power supply models from India to Kenya. This research shows that it is not so much stable technical solutions which travel between different spatial and cultural contexts, but that experiences with sustainable technologies in one country can provide important inspiration and knowledge for the development of new socio-technical designs based on local needs in a new socio-spatial context in a different country. Such learning processes can be especially effective between countries with similar problem situations, such as poverty and lacking access to electricity in rural areas. To achieve a successful transfer, strong emphasis must be put on mutual learning and exchange of knowledge, sociotechnical experimentation, adaptation and social embedding. Learning from promising, innovative infrastructures in other geographical areas needs to capture the micro-level interactions between people, technology and socio-cultural contexts, while also taking into account larger processes of system innovation and emerging transitions.
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