Travel restrictions imposed by countries in response to the coronavirus pandemic have contribution to a slowdown in investment in rural electrification projects. Thomas Hillig examines the extent of the investment freeze and possible solutions to get capital flowing into much needed projects again
Governments should focus on mini-grids as a means to enabling access to reliable electricity for hundreds of millions of people that don’t yet have it and mini-grids using solar and batteries have matured as a technology class, but financing such projects remains problematic, a new report has found.
India’s Discoms are the biggest hurdle to the proliferation of clean energy micro-grids, the head of the premier Indian government think tank and senior adviser to prime minister Narendra Modi has said.
Solarcentury has commissioned two solar-storage-diesel mini-grids in rural communities in Eritrea that are far away from the grid and have relied purely on diesel power until now.
French energy giant teams up with a Myanmar-focused off-grid energy specialist to help spur rural electrification across the Southeast Asian country with mini-grids combining PV, diesel and battery storage.
Homeowners across Afghanistan are set to benefit from the country's first pay-as-you-go (PAYG) home solar systems combined with energy storage batteries, being delivered in a pioneering new programme led by the IFC and d.Light.
