Demand for off-grid solar electricity: Experimental evidence from Rwanda

Michael Grimm, Luciane Lenz, Jörg Peters and Maximiliane Sievert

No 745, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: The cost of providing electricity to the unconnected 1.1 billion people in developing countries is significant. High hopes are pinned on market-based dissemination of offgrid technologies to complement the expensive extension of public grid infrastructure. In this paper, we elicit the revealed willingness-to-pay for different off-grid solar technologies in a field experiment in rural Rwanda. Our findings show that households are willing to dedicate substantial parts of their budget to electricity, but not enough to reach cost-covering prices. Randomly assigned payment periods do not alter this finding. We interpret the results from two perspectives. First, we examine whether the United Nations' universal energy access goal can be reached via unsubsidized markets. Second, in a stylized welfare cost-benefit analysis, we compare a subsidization policy for off-grid solar electrification to a grid extension policy. Our findings suggest that, for most of rural Africa, off-grid solar is the preferable technology to reach mass electrification, and that grid infrastructure should concentrate on selected prosperous regions.

Keywords: public infrastructure; technology adoption; electrification; willingness-to-pay; energy access (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 H54 O13 Q28 Q41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-ene, nep-exp and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/175410/1/1015252281.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Demand for Off-Grid Solar Electricity: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda (2020)
Working Paper: Demand for off-grid solar electricity – Experimental evidence from Rwanda (2017)
Working Paper: Demand for Off-Grid Solar Electricity: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda (2017)
Working Paper: Demand for Off-Grid Solar Electricity: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda (2016)
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:zbw:rwirep:745

DOI: 10.4419/86788865

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().