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While South American countries have made significant progress in energy access, tens of millions of people (more than 30 million, according to conservative estimates) do not have access, particularly in remote areas. From 24-26 January 2016, experts from across the region gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities for energy access. The forum “Sustainable energy …
South American countries have made significant progress in energy access, but more than 30 million people (around 7% of the population) continue to live without electricity. While energy access levels are much higher than in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the communities remaining without electricity typically live in particularly remote locations, in the mountains or …
BR11: Off-grid energy in remote communities: Lessons from South America Read More »
This report summarises the findings of the Smart Villages Initiative’s workshop on business and financial models held in Cambridge in January 2016. The workshop brought together 36 participants from academia, the private sector, NGOs, and the public sector to share their perspectives and experiences concerning business and financial models for home-based electricity services and decentralised …
The ‘forward look’ workshop on potential breakthroughs in the use of energy in off-grid villages” was held in Churchill College, University of Cambridge on 18 December 2015. An introduction to the workshop’s aims and to the Smart Villages Initiative was followed by an introduction to the concept of “distributed manufacturing” for rural villages and accounts …
WR14: Potential breakthroughs in productive use of energy in off-grid villages Read More »
Despite substantial progress on achieving universal electricity access in the region, almost half the population in Southeast Asia continues to rely primarily on biomass to meet their cooking needs. On 2 December 2015, the Smart Villages Initiative together with GERES, Myanmar organised a regional workshop in Yangon, Myanmar to gather lessons about the sustainable dissemination …
WR13: Sustainable dissemination of improved cookstoves – lessons from Southeast Asia Read More »
This technical report reviews the business models used by pioneer firms in the solar home-based electricity services industry, specifically pico-solar lighting systems and solar home systems. Drawing on the grey and academic literature, the report provides a detailed industry overview, assesses key components of business models, and identifies remaining challenges and ways forward. Industry overview …
TR4: Business models for home-based electricity services Read More »
More than one billion people in the world still do not have electricity: over three billion cook on dirty, inefficient and harmful stoves, and four million people die prematurely each year as a result. The UN’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative aims to achieve universal access to modern energy services by 2030. Widespread recognition …
WR12: South Asia Dialogue with Media Professionals Read More »
Electricity is a crucial part of the infrastructure needed to improve the quality of life for island communities in developing nations. This report summarises the information presented at, and conclusions arising from, the workshop on issues related to island electricity access held by the Smart Villages Initiative and Kopernik. The workshop took place on the …
The Smart Villages Initiative together with its local partner, Kopernik, held a workshop on Bunaken Island, Sulawesi in Indonesia, in November 2015 to discuss off-grid energy systems in remote island communities in Southeast Asia. The workshop focused on the barriers and circumstances of rural energy access that are unique to small island communities, drawing inspiration …
BR10: Findings from the Indonesian Smart Villages Workshop on Energy for Islands Read More »
Pakistan has substantial experience of deploying micro-grids based on micro-hydro systems in rural communities. The Smart Villages Initiative, supported by the Rural Support Programmes Network, Pakistan organised a workshop in Islamabad, Pakistan on 6 October 2015 to consider Pakistan’s experience of developing enabling frameworks for the dissemination of micro-grids. The workshop was an important event …
The Smart Villages Initiative, supported by the Rural Support Programmes Network, Pakistan organised a workshop in Islamabad, Pakistan on 6 October 2015 to consider Pakistan’s experience of developing enabling frameworks for the dissemination of micro-grids. This briefing note for policymakers and other stakeholders summarises key points emerging from the workshop.
Last month in New York, the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), defining the global development agenda for the next 15 years. Among the 17 goals is Goal 7’s aim to ensure “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” Given that an estimated 1.3 billion people have no access to electricity …
10 Questions to Ask about Distributed Generation, a collaboration between WRI, WWF and Prayas (Energy Group), is part of the 10 Questions to Ask Series and provides a framework for stakeholder engagement around the common questions and challenges that arise in the context of planning for and implementing DG option to address electricity access gaps. …
10 questions to ask about distributed generation Read More »
This report summarises the findings of the Smart Villages Initiative’s high-level workshop on off-grid village energy in East Africa. Co-hosted by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Rwanda, the workshop brought together 47 key stakeholders from East Africa and the United Kingdom to share the findings of the Smart Villages Initiative’s East Africa engagement, to review the …
WR9: High-level workshop on off-grid village energy in East Africa Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative together with its local partner, Practical Action Consulting South Asia, held a workshop in Dhaka on 26 August 2015 to consider the experience in Bangladesh of off-grid rural energy systems. This briefing note for policymakers and other stakeholders summarises key points emerging from the workshop.
The Smart Villages Initiative publishes policy brief showing that off-grid renewable energy and technology leapfrogging can catalyse sustainable development in world’s remotest and poorest regions On the eve of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York, the Smart Villages Initiative has urged delegates to keep in mind the plight of remote off-grid communities, …
Can new SDGs really impact last mile communities? Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative continued its engagement in South Asia with a workshop held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 26 August 2015. The aim of the workshop was to learn from Bangladesh’s experience in providing energy to off-grid rural communities through home-based electricity systems, in particular solar home systems (SHS), and solar/solar-hybrid mini-grids. The workshop also …
WR8: Smart Villages in Bangladesh: Dhaka Workshop Report Read More »
There are two initial challenges in defining and measuring energy access: the absence of a universal definition of energy access and the difficulty of measuring any definition in an accurate manner. The multi-tier approach to measuring energy access proposed in the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Global Tracking Framework of 2013 introduces a five-tier measurement …
Capturing the multi-dimensionality of energy access Read More »
Amidst the stunning background of Terrat, a Masaai village in remote Northern Tanzania, members of the Smart Villages team spent the weekend of 22-23 August, 2015 engaged in an extremely productive dialogue event with representatives of village level energy initiatives from Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and Uganda. The event was organised at a time when …
WR7: East African Community Leaders’ Dialogue Workshop Report Read More »
This policy brief summarises the findings and recommendations arising from a 15 month programme of engagement in East Africa, commencing in June 2014, undertaken by the Smart Villages Initiative to identify the barriers to off-grid sustainable energy access for development in rural communities and to gather views on how those barriers can be overcome. It …
BR7: Lessons learned from the Smart Villages Engagement Programme in East Africa Read More »