Rural Electrification

From açaı́ to access: distributed electrification in rural Brazil

Purpose – To rigorously examine success and failure in the use of small scale technologies for rural electrification. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured primary field interviews plus secondary sources. Findings – Business model differences and influence of institutions important are important for understanding success and failure in rural electrification and the contribution rural el...

Rural Electrification, Micro-finance and Micro and Small Business (MSB) Development: Lessons for the Nicaragua Off- grid Rural Electrification Project

Off-grid power solutions

Despite widespread privatization and liberalization of the electricity sector in the 1980s and 1990s, rural electrification has been largely neglected. This is attributed to the fact that rural electrification provides little by way of market incentives for profit-seeking private companies. Besides, it is also characterized by geographical remoteness, dispersed consumers, higher costs of supply...

Sustainability of Off-Grid Photovoltaic Systems for Rural Electrification in Developing Countries: A Review

A review on rural electrification programs and projects based on off-grid Photovoltaic (PV) systems, including Solar Pico Systems (SPS) and Solar Home Systems (SHS) in Developing Countries (DCs) was conducted. The goal was to highlight the main multidimensional drawbacks that may constrain the sustainability of these systems. Four dimensions of sustainability (institutional, economic, environme...

Photovoltaics for Rural Electrification in the People's Republic of China

Rapid growth in economic development, coupled with the absence of an electric grid in large areas of the rural countryside, has created a need for new energy sources both in urban centers and rural areas in China. The most critical need for rural electrification exists in northern and western China, where 80 million people had no access to grid electricity at the end of 1995. In February 1995, ...

Are the Rural Electrification Efforts in the Ecuadorian Amazon Sustainable?

In this paper, we assess the sustainability of rural electrification programs in Ecuador, paying special attention to programs targeting small indigenous communities in the Amazon basin. Our assessment considers four dimensions of sustainability (institutional, economic, environmental, and socio-cultural) and is based on an exhaustive qualitative document analysis, complemented by semi-structur...