In the News

Countries facing electricity access challenges today have more options and potential electrification pathways than ever before, but the initial cost of connecting new rural customers remains an expensive proposition. This brief explores the successful rural electrification experiences of seven case countries—Brazil, Chile, Laos, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, and Tunisia—looking specifically at the cost of connections and how subsidies and public financing were deployed to address the affordability challenge and facilitate energy access.

Technologies like geospatial imagery, machine learning and affordable batteries are generating ever more innovative ways to target customers with off-grid energy solutions. But according to analysts at the Duke University Energy Access Project, public policy is struggling to keep up with these rapid-fire developments, leaving vast amounts of human capacity and productivity untapped. They explore how to address this disconnect between government and the private sector.

Consider applying to join the Energy Access Project’s Story+ project, Joining the electric circus: rural electrification and gender in the papers of Louisan Mamer!

Consider applying to join the Energy Access Project’s Data+ project, Taking electrification on the road: Exploring the impact of the Electric Farm Equipment roadshow!

The Energy Access Project at Duke in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank and Sustainable Energy For All, have developed an Energy Access Dividend for Haiti and Honduras with the aim of quantifying the electrification benefits forgone over a country’s business-as-usual electrification transition.

“Nigeria is the poster child on how power access, especially in the business area, is just such a mega-constraint to growth,” EAP’s Jonathan Phillips told NPR in a discussion of the importance of electricity to the tech industry.

This brief provides a snapshot of the relevant demand-stimulating lessons learned in the off-grid space as well as those that have been pursued by governments and utilities in the past.