Household Solar Adoption in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review

Hannah Girardeau and Subhrendu Pattanayak have published an EfD Initiative paper on the enabling environment of offgrid solar. They identified 42 studies in 26 countries that describe the enabling environment: the constellation of financial, market, programmatic, and regulatory factors that lead to adoption of small-scale solar systems. At the household level, the cost of technology and quality of a product have the potential to greatly impact the success of a program. On a programmatic scale, customer support and ongoing maintenance have the potential to increase sustainable use of products. Finally, supportive government level policies and design standards can encourage the growth of high-quality products in regional markets.