Presentation Title
Extend the Grid of Cut the Cord? An analysis of the socioeconomic factors behind grid connectivity versus off-grid solar PV deployment in sub-Saharan Africa.
Abstract
The past decade cracked the surface of the immense economic development benefits sub-Saharan may be poised to receive by adopting renewable energy resources, mainly solar PV. However, as a new decade unfolds huge challenges still remain to increase electrification in the world's least electric region, while also building out an energy network that utilizes renewables at its foundation, and does not compromise GDP growth. What could lie ahead for the region is truly powerful: being the first region of the world industrializing with clean, reliable, and de-centralized electric infrastructure.
Utilizing iterative years of World bank Living Standards Measurement Studies from Tanzania, this research will look to identify the socioeconomic and geospatial factors certain communities that signify if the community could be better served by grid-extension or micro-grid creation. From this sample study, a better understanding and underlying framework of the needs of a region will be created to help support further policy options available to electric utilities in Southern Africa to enable solar PV adoption in the most cost-effective way possible for public and private capital.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Travis Reynolds
Status
Graduate
Student College
Graduate College
Program/Major
Community Development and Applied Economics
Primary Research Category
Social Sciences
Secondary Research Category
Food & Environment Studies
Tertiary Research Category
Arts & Humanities
Extend the Grid of Cut the Cord? An analysis of the socioeconomic factors behind grid connectivity versus off-grid solar PV deployment in sub-Saharan Africa.
The past decade cracked the surface of the immense economic development benefits sub-Saharan may be poised to receive by adopting renewable energy resources, mainly solar PV. However, as a new decade unfolds huge challenges still remain to increase electrification in the world's least electric region, while also building out an energy network that utilizes renewables at its foundation, and does not compromise GDP growth. What could lie ahead for the region is truly powerful: being the first region of the world industrializing with clean, reliable, and de-centralized electric infrastructure.
Utilizing iterative years of World bank Living Standards Measurement Studies from Tanzania, this research will look to identify the socioeconomic and geospatial factors certain communities that signify if the community could be better served by grid-extension or micro-grid creation. From this sample study, a better understanding and underlying framework of the needs of a region will be created to help support further policy options available to electric utilities in Southern Africa to enable solar PV adoption in the most cost-effective way possible for public and private capital.