Powering our appliances and charging our smart devices night and day is something many take for granted. Yet 789 million people living in remote communities and isolated areas globally do not have access to electricity. If we include the people who are not connected to their national grid, the number rises to 1.4 billion.
Households that fall outside of their national grid predominantly rely on standalone diesel generators, which create problems. Diesel generators have numerous toxic byproducts, such as benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde, alongside their carbon emissions. Bulk transportation and long-term storage of diesel fuel pose significant environmental threats for these communities. Millions of litres of diesel have spilled and polluted land and water.
Renewable mini-grid energy systems are central to reducing diesel dependency in remote communities. Mini-grids are small energy distribution networks that are separate from the main energy grid. Unlike micro-grids that can power one or a few units, mini-grids can supply the needs of a village, a community with residences and public buildings or sometimes a whole island. However, a significant number of these projects are abandoned shortly after their installation.
As researchers who specialize in sustainable operations, we identified more than 100 renewable mini-grid projects installed between 1995 and 2018 in rural areas across the world to get a better sense of what factors lead to success.
