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There are 17 million people without access to electricity services in Latin America. This population lives in small isolated and scattered communities with low incomes where it is difficult to achieve 100% access to electricity by the grid extension. Therefore, it is necessary to create market mechanisms and promote off-grid electrification in which photovoltaic (PV) technology plays a fundamental role. This research assesses successful projects developed in Peru, Mexico, and Bolivia, where 3rd Generation Solar Home Systems (3G-SHSs) are being introduced to support off-grid initiatives. To do so, we applied a mixed-methods approach including a comparative case study analysis, an extensive literature review, focus group discussions, and field research. Thereby, the lessons learned reveal that confidence, commitment, and flexibility are the main pillars of rural electrification. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the combination of various business models-an energy service company, fee-for-service, pay-as-you-go, and a microfranchising-with 3G-SHSs is powerfully effective in terms of sustainability. Our findings are useful to policy makers, researchers, promoters, and other stakeholders to rethink intervention strategies in rural areas. Access to electricity must be a state policy to facilitate the participation of new actors, especially of the private sector and communities, and the introduction of innovative business models and high-quality technology.

The fragile ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands is being affected by population growth, intensive tourism, the exploitation of local resources and the high consumption of imported fossil fuels. This unsustainable development model makes the provision of services such as electricity a challenge. This research investigates the hybrid renewable mini-grid Baltra-Santa Cruz, which represents 62% of the electricity generation mix of the archipelago. This study aims to support the Galapagos Zero Fossil Fuel Initiative and the Sustainable Development Goal 7 through the reduction in diesel consumption and electricity generation costs. To do so, HOMER Pro, a specialized hybrid renewable mini-grid planning tool, is used to perform several techno-economic assessments, focusing on different electricity demand scenarios. Therefore, multiple pathways are compared to identify the most reliable alternatives towards the progressive decarbonization of this hybrid system. The results indicate that installing 18.25 MWp of photovoltaic and 20.68 MWh of battery capacity could reduce the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) from 32.06 to 18.95 USc/kWh, increasing the renewable energy (RE) share from 18% to 39%. Additionally, the successful application of energy efficiency measures would even reduce the LCOE to 17.10 USc/kWh. What is more, distributed energy is considered the most attractive way to involve islanders in the energy transition process. Finally, this paper offers a comprehensive business model proposal to achieve a resilient energy supply, based on a combination of auctions and energy community models, which demands high political will, reliable and innovative regulations and social awareness about energy use.Sustainability 2020, 12, 2282 4 of 47 and implement RE projects. In addition, the Ecuadorian Electricity Master Plan (PME) 2016-2025 [44] contains the list of priority projects to increase renewable electricity generation. Moreover, those possible new partners can propose additional RE initiatives thanks to the General Regulation of the LOSPEE. This regulation [43] is based on the targets of the National Plan of Development 2017Development -2021 which prioritize RE resources exploitation to reduce the dependency of fossil fuels. What is more, new companies interested in developing RE projects can receive an income-tax-exemption for five years [46].As regards distributed generation, the photovoltaic microgeneration to electricity self-sufficiency for final consumers of electricity regulation [47] and its amendment [48] promote the installation of PV systems up to 300 kWp per user in the residential sector and below 1000 kWp per user in the commercial and industrial sectors. This regulation is not limited to rooftop PV systems. A net-metering scheme is applied to compensate electricity costs. Thanks to this mechanism, consumers are billed for their "net" electricity use and the associated costs become credits for the following months if the electricity balance is positive for users. [47]. The National Rate Schedule for ...

The electrification of isolated homes in rural areas without access to the electric grid has been achieved in part using solar energy transformed into electricity through Photovoltaic (PV) equipment known as Solar Home Systems (SHSs), which has been widely disseminated throughout the world. The use of SHSs in rural electrification projects has been studied from 1980 to date, they have been incorporating advances and technological innovations successively. Through the review of documents on PV projects, articles, and technical reports, it has been possible to identify the changes in the main components of the SHS and the typical configurations, systematizing them in a discrete timeline. Thereby, this article characterizes three generations of SHSs and highlights their differences. The first generation is fully valid between 1980–1995, the second generation in 1995–2010, and the third generation from 2005 to date, which overlaps the beginning. In any case, the time limits in each period are only referential. The later generation, Third Generation Solar Home Systems (3G-SHSs), is highly efficient, uses LED lamps, lithium batteries, microelectronic control, and plug and play connections. Indeed, this equipment can be self-managed by the user and reflects the technology’s high reliability by a minimum maintenance service in situ. Furthermore, their lower costs make access to electricity more affordable for the last mile population. The present research offers a detailed technological and operational characterization of the 3G-SHSs to show the most relevant aspects of support to project developers, planners, and decision-makers to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7.

The common agreement of the United Nation members pushes the 2030 Agenda ahead to alleviate poverty and ensure wellbeing for all, recognizing energy as a crucial pathway to achieving this goal under three core dimensions: human development, sustainable economic growth, and environmental sustainability. Affordable and clean energy is represented by the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7). This great scope represents a multifaceted challenge for all countries, especially for the most disadvantaged environments such as small islands and rural areas from developing countries. Both small islands and rural areas experience a scarcity of goods and services such as energy and are isolated from markets, have lack of human resources, difficulties in deploying economies of scale, and other issues that affect their development. Along the same line, their energy security is limited by their dependence on imported fuels, increasing electricity prices or making it infeasible to access electricity. This research builds the state of the art of off-grid energy systems for both contexts based on an extensive review of literature. The evidence shows that moving sustainable energy systems forward requires getting more people involved, the application of several business models, prevalent technological innovations, and the application of technical quality procedures. This perspective would really help to address the vulnerabilities of fragile locations. Here, auctions, the Energy Service Company, community, and Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) models and renewable energy projects based on mature technology present a great opportunity for a sustainable future, powering a nexus among energy, environment, and society.