The State of Off-Grid Energy Access

This week: The cutting-edge business of bringing power to the last billion people on Earth without it.  We’ll follow the money, the markets, the business models and ask whether distributed renewables are providing a real alternative to slow grid connections.  Investments in off-grid power in Africa and Asia have skyrocketed in the last five years. Thirty times more money went into the sector in 2018 compared with 2013. More than $500 million dollars was invested in electrification in 2018, for the first time, an analysis by Wood Mackenzie found. The money is finally bringing lights, cell phone charging and electric stoves to millions of people who had to rely on kerosene and wood. But is the money getting funneled to the right projects? Can they scale to meet a high-energy society? And what are the bottlenecks in international finance preventing these solutions from expanding faster? Ben Attia joins us for a dive into the state of the market. Ben has spent years immersed in the world of solar home systems and off grid renewables in the Middle East and Africa. He leads emerging coverage of off-grid power markets for Wood MacKenzie.    Resources:Wood MacKenzie: Strategic Investments in Energy Access (by Ben)GTM: Report: Investment in Off-Grid Energy Access Totals $1.7B Through 2018MIT–Rockefeller Commission Report:Financial Times: Mobisol, A Cautionary Tale for Impact InvestorsKahawatungu: M-Kopa Unveils Solar Refrigerators for Off-Grid CustomersForbes Tata Power Aims to Boost Electricity for Rural IndiaBloomberg Tata, Rockefeller Foundation Plan 10,000 India MicrogridsSouth Africa Business Day: Digital tech in solar will be big help to emerging countriesThis podcast is brought to you by Energetic Insurance. Energetic’s EneRate Credit Cover policy is an easy button for commercial solar — similar to a FICO score in residential solar. This enables savvy developers and investors to quickly finance commercial solar projects and turn around portfolio refinancings more rapidly. Find out more. This podcast is brought to you by KORE Power. KORE Power is a leading manufacturer of high-density, high-voltage energy storage solutions for utility, industrial, microgrids and mission-critical markets. Find out more.