Energy access and rural electrification

Governments can advance off-grid planning and measurement by establishing enabling policies, regulatory frameworks, and standards for sustainable, decentralised renewable energy systems. Governments must also coordinate data collection, monitor energy access, and track off-grid progress, along with promoting environmental sustainability and supporting local economic development.

Key mechanisms for energy-access planning and tracking include:

• Integrated electrification planning: Coordinated decision-making on grid extension, mini-grids, and off-grid solutions within a single national framework helps to optimise investment decisions, avoid duplication, and ensure that different delivery models contribute coherently to universal and inclusive energy access.
• Data-driven decision-making: Geospatial analysis, demand assessments, and regularly updated datasets enable governments to identify priority areas, match technologies to local conditions, and track implementation. Open data platforms and outcome-based indicators also strengthen transparency, accountability and investor confidence.
• Time-bound access pathways: Clearly articulated connection milestones and timelines provide a shared reference for governments, utilities and development partners, helping to align implementation efforts and signal long-term commitment to universal energy access.
• Multi-tier frameworks for access measurement: Using a multi-tier framework allows energy access to be assessed beyond simple connection rates, capturing dimensions such as reliability, affordability, quality and duration of electrical supply, enabling more nuanced policy evaluation.
• National electrification data platforms: Centralised systems for collecting and reporting data on connections, service quality, and system performance support consistent monitoring across technologies and localities, improving accuracy in planning while enhancing coordination among institutions.
• Local capacity and institutional development: Strengthening local entrepreneurship, technical skills, and institutional capacity – particularly within local governments and with attention to gender inclusion – supports sustainable operation for off-grid systems and ensures that energy access contributes to broader social and economic development.

Renewable mini-grid deployment requires governments to ensure regulatory clarity and provide tariff frameworks and financing mechanisms that make projects bankable and feasible for private developers. Mini-grid policies give communities and private developers essential information, technology quality standards, and regulatory certainty, including transparency about future grid expansion.

Key features of mini-grid policies include:

• Integrated planning: National electrification and energy transition plans can set quantitative deployment targets, ensuring mini-grids are treated as a core pillar rather than a niche add-on. Such targets strengthen planning, regulation and financing for renewable-based mini-grids.
• Clear legal and regulatory frameworks: Legal and regulatory frameworks for mini-grids must clarify the respective roles and responsibilities of developers and operators, setting out simple, proportional licensing rules so projects can move forward with regulatory certainty. Mini-grid laws and regulations also provide planning certainty for developers and communities.
• Clear governance structures: A clear division of responsibilities is needed among government offices for procurement, permitting, planning and community engagement at both national and sub-national levels to send clear investment signals to the private sector.
• Quality, safety, and reliability standards: Technical and service standards for equipment, installation, and operations – including regulations on operator maintenance – help ensure a reliable supply, protect consumers, and build trust in mini-grids as a long-term solution.
• Dedicated tariff regimes: A predictable, transparent tariff framework that allows cost-reflective or partially subsidised tariffs – tailored to mini-grid realities – can support community-benefit models that ensure financial viability while protecting consumers.
• Clear rules for interconnection: Policies should specify technical standards and commercial arrangements for mini-grid interconnection with the national power system, including what happens when the main grid arrives and under what terms power can be bought or sold.
• Community engagement and consumer protection: Participatory planning, transparent information on tariffs and service levels, and dedicated finance for community-owned projects ensure that mini-grids respond to local needs and remain socially and politically robust.
• Guidelines and regulations for e-waste disposal. Clear guidelines and regulations are also needed for the disposal of electronic waste, such as disused batteries, inverters or panels, to uphold environmental protection amid the development and operation of mini-grids.

Solar home systems (SHS) and solar energy kits provide a cost-effective and rapidly deployable solution for electrifying remote and sparsely populated areas where grid extension is not viable. These distributed energy solutions have become a key component of rural electrification strategies in the past decade, as roll-out can advance local communities rapidly from basic or limited access to more robust, higher-quality service.

Key considerations for off-grid SHS and solar energy kits include:

• Integration into national electrification planning: Embedding SHS and solar energy kits within national and rural electrification strategies helps ensure that off-grid solutions complement grid expansion, reach remote populations efficiently, and contribute coherently to universal access goals.
• Innovative and inclusive financing models: Flexible payment mechanisms such as mobile money, pay-as-you-go, and pay-as-you-use arrangements lower affordability barriers, expand access for low-income households, and support sustainable market growth for off-grid solutions.
• Quality and performance standards: Minimum technical standards for equipment, combined with warranty and after-sales service requirements, protect consumers from low-quality products, build trust in off-grid technologies, and safeguard long-term system performance.
• Targeted fiscal incentives: Exemptions from value-added tax (VAT) and import duties for off-grid components and appliances can reduce system costs, improve affordability, and stimulate private investment across the off-grid value chain.
• Support mechanisms for vulnerable groups: Dedicated programmes for low-income households and other vulnerable users enhance equity in energy access and ensure that off-grid solutions contribute to poverty reduction and social inclusion.
• Workforce development and local capacity: Vocational training and skills development for installation, maintenance and repair strengthen local service ecosystems, create jobs, and improve the reliability and longevity of solar energy systems.
• E-waste management and environmental safeguards: Clear guidelines for the collection, recycling, and disposal of batteries, panels, and electronic components help mitigate environmental risks and ensure that off-grid electrification remains environmentally sustainable over time.

Productive uses of electricity – such as agro-processing, irrigation, cold storage, and rural enterprise activities – enable households and communities to generate income, add value to local resources, and improve local livelihoods. By anchoring demand and improving the financial viability of energy systems, productive uses make rural electrification sustainable and scalable while helping drive social and economic development.

Key policy considerations to promote productive energy uses include:

• Identification of productive-use opportunities: Integrating an assessment of potential productive uses into mini-grid and rural electrification planning helps align system size and service design with local economic activities, socio-economic conditions, and community needs, increasing electricity uptake and local value creation.
• Affordability of productive appliances: Reducing upfront costs for productive-use equipment – through measures such as VAT or import-duty exemptions for certified appliances – lowers an entry barrier for small businesses and farmers, accelerating adoption and improving the economic viability of electrification.
• Targeted financing instruments: Concessional loans, grants, and results-based financing can address capital constraints faced by micro-enterprises and rural users, enabling investment in productive technologies that would otherwise remain out of reach.
• Market access and value-chain integration: Ensuring access to input and output markets for businesses and farmers using electricity in productive activities can strengthen the business case for electrification, increase income and boost local employment.
• Skills development and capacity building: Training and technical support for users and local service providers can enhance the establishment, maintenance and expansion of productive energy uses, supporting longer-term economic sustainability and resilience.

Clean cooking is an important component of energy access, with an estimated 2.1 billion people worldwide lacking access to clean cooking solutions. Cooking on three-stone fires is a major source of indoor air pollution in many countries and contributes to deforestation. It also perpetuates gender inequality, as women and children usually collect the firewood for cooking.

Various clean cooking solutions are available in the market. Improved cookstoves are a step up from the traditional three-stone fire and can achieve thermal efficiencies of up to 30%. Briquettes (from sustainable materials) and pellets offer better energy efficiency than firewood as cooking fuels. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and biogas are cleaner, but they depend on supply chains.

Biogas also depends on substrate, i.e. a steady supply of organic feedstock such as animal manure, crop residues, or food waste, which must be collected, fed into digesters, and maintained over time. Some cultures also reject biogas in principle due to reservations about cooking with animal or human waste.

Electricity use remains expensive for cooking, especially in off-grid areas, where clean solutions compete with firewood that is readily available at no cost. However, e-cooking is becoming a viable option in urban and peri-urban areas.

Clean cooking policy should consider:

• National strategy: Clean cooking strategies must take account of a range of technological solutions, such as LPG and biomethane fuels, e-cooking, more efficient cookstoves and other options.
• Financial incentives: Subsidies, tax incentives, result-based finance, pay-as-you-go, bulk procurement programmes and other financial incentives can all support clean cooking.
• E-cooking strategy: Dedicated strategies can promote cooking with electricity in peri-urban and rural areas.
• Quality standards: Clean cooking appliances require effective and enforceable quality standards.
• Local manufacturers and distributors: Support for local stove manufacturers can strengthen their supply chains, reduce costs, and create local jobs.