Electrification and rural development: issues of scale in distributed generation

Elizabeth Baldwin, Jennifer N. Brass, Sanya Carley and Lauren M. MacLean

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, 2015, vol. 4, issue 2, 196-211

Abstract: Despite the importance of electrification for economic and social development, over one billion people globally lack access to electricity, primarily in rural areas of developing countries. Alongside the traditional means of expanding access, large‐scale grid electrification, there exists another option for rural electrification: small‐scale and localized distributed generation (DG), often powered by renewable energy sources. DG systems can be grid‐connected or off‐grid and can range in scale from less than 10 W solar lanterns at the small end to 60 MW biomass generation. Although DG has enabled some level of access to electricity for millions of people, little or no research has analyzed how the scale or level of access to electricity has shaped the ways that programs are financed or are viewed by governments, or the developmental impacts that various levels have on end‐users. This article reviews the literature on DG in developing countries and finds that large‐scale DG systems require a different set of approaches to finance, end‐user training, and public policy support than do small‐scale DG systems. Our review also reveals that even the smallest scale DG systems improve users' quality of life, yet access to electricity alone is not sufficient to achieve desired economic and social development goals. Policy makers, donors, non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), and other actors engaged in rural development must both (1) make decisions considering the scale of DG programs, and (2) reflect on end‐users' needs and productive uses for electricity if rural electrification projects are to result in long‐term development benefits. WIREs Energy Environ 2015, 4:196–211. doi: 10.1002/wene.129 This article is categorized under: Energy Policy and Planning > Economics and Policy

Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/wene.129

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:wireae:v:4:y:2015:i:2:p:196-211

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=2041-8396

Access Statistics for this article

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment is currently edited by Peter Lund and John Byrne

More articles in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().