An analysis of renewable mini-grid projects for rural electrification

摘要: Abstract Almost 900 million people are living with no access to electricity, mostly in remote regions where extending the central grid is infeasible. These communities often heavily depend on expensive and polluting diesel generators that create significant financial operational challenges. Following recent advances cost reductions renewable technologies, governments, private sector, non-profit organizations started investing rural electrification projects through mini-grids, some of which were reported have been unsuccessful. The findings lessons learned from these remain highly compartmentalized across different studies, making it significantly challenging derive evidence-based insights clean for investors practitioners. This study aids closing this gap by collecting project-level data 104 energy mini-grids installed globe. We first conduct a systematic review qualitative drivers project success benefits communities. Next, we empirically validate our identify factors contributing mini-grid cost.