Electricity affects all aspects of development: social,
economic, and environmental. Access to electricity can dramatically
improve levels of welfare and increase standards of living.
However, 1.3 billion People, almost 25% of humanity lacks access to electricity; over 90% of those lacking electricity lives in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Lack of access to electricity is a barrier for development of communities deprived of social and economic opportunities that are common place to those with access. The issue is known by governments, most of them are setting aggressive targets to increase access, and many programs are in place to extend the grid to rural communities.
However, high capital cost, complexity of grid extension, commercial viability especially in remote and low density areas make most of those programs too long term solutions.
There is growing evidence that investments in small- and medium-scale electrification projects have a positive impact on improving the energy situation of the majority of population especially in underserved locations.
Decentralized electrification is emerging as the solution to fill the gap left in socio economic development of those most in need. Decentralized electrification is described as an approach where electrification is led by non governmental entities such as private entrepreneurs, NGOs, cooperatives or the communities. Renewable energy is the preferred source of energy in decentralized projects.
Due to the high consumers interest about solar off grid electricity, whether in rural communities lacking access to electricity or within communities victim of unplanned and frequent power outages making the grid unreliable, many are making parallels between the explosive growth of telecommunication sector in the past decade and the nascent off grid solar market.
The modularity of solar, giving the possibility of adding or removing panels to scale up or down a power generation unit, is making two electrification approaches rising: