Governments that fail to use clean, off-grid energy to help get electricity fast to the 1 billion people living without power - mainly in Africa and South Asia - are missing opportunities to improve lives and boost development, energy experts said. The United Nations has set a target for everyone to have access to sustainable, affordable energy by 2030. One way of doing this is to expand national power grids, a process that can take decades and often misses out rural areas, clean energy campaigners say.
Research from the Overseas Development Institute showed that speeding up access to off-grid electricity, such as solar home systems and clean energy mini-grids, can bring significant benefits. If households in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Kenya replace kerosene lamps with solar-powered lighting they could each save about $10 a month, said report author Andrew Scott.
"Add that up for a year, and you're getting to quite a significant freeing up of income that could be used for other purposes," he said, adding the figure varies according to country, household consumption and fuel prices. Switching from dirty fuel to solar can also give children extra study time each day, he said. And cutting kerosene use brings large reductions in black carbon emissions, equivalent to as much as 330 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year in Ethiopia, roughly the same as the emissions from 60 million passenger vehicles.
Kristina Skierka, CEO of Power for All, a campaign that promotes decentralised renewables in countries including India and Nigeria, said these energy sources could be provided in weeks or months - far faster than connecting people to national grids, which often rely on fossil fuels. Kyte said countries still needed to work on expanding their national grids and shifting them to clean power, but at the same time they should ramp up deployment of small-scale solar systems, especially in rural areas.
Research from the Overseas Development Institute showed that speeding up access to off-grid electricity, such as solar home systems and clean energy mini-grids, can bring significant benefits. If households in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Kenya replace kerosene lamps with solar-powered lighting they could each save about $10 a month, said report author Andrew Scott.
"Add that up for a year, and you're getting to quite a significant freeing up of income that could be used for other purposes," he said, adding the figure varies according to country, household consumption and fuel prices. Switching from dirty fuel to solar can also give children extra study time each day, he said. And cutting kerosene use brings large reductions in black carbon emissions, equivalent to as much as 330 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year in Ethiopia, roughly the same as the emissions from 60 million passenger vehicles.
Kristina Skierka, CEO of Power for All, a campaign that promotes decentralised renewables in countries including India and Nigeria, said these energy sources could be provided in weeks or months - far faster than connecting people to national grids, which often rely on fossil fuels. Kyte said countries still needed to work on expanding their national grids and shifting them to clean power, but at the same time they should ramp up deployment of small-scale solar systems, especially in rural areas.
"This is a very workable solution for isolated communities," she said.
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