Publications

Clean Energy Minigrid Policy Development Guide

The Clean Energy Mini-Grid Policy Development Guide, developed in partnership by ARE, AMDA, UNIDO, INENSUS and the AfDB Green Mini-Grid Help Desk, outlines the various forms and models that public-private cooperation could take and reflects on the outcomes of policy decisions on mini-grid deployment.

Benchmarking Africa's Minigrids

Over the last decade, leading authorities have repeatedly heralded minigrids as
essential to providing electricity to approximately half of all unelectrified communities
in Africa. Despite this, investment, political buy-in, and scale have remained elusive.
One of the key reasons this has been the case is that to date, national-level decisionmakers, investors and donors have had to rely on data and evidence from individuals
or small groups of companies. This being because there has been a general lack of
reliable, neutral information available on the sector as a whole.

Africa Mini-grid Developers Association (AMDA) SMART RBF Policy Recommendation

More than 600 million people in Africa, largely living in rural areas, do not have access to power.
The dominant means of providing them power is through grid connections. Due to the high costs
( - +1 for someone living >4km from the grid) to connect them, governments and donors typically subsidise main grid connections by 85-100%2 of the capex.

Mini-Grids on the Trajectory of Rural Electrification in Africa

A decade ago, the emergence of mobile phones and mobile data services made the introduction of
traditional cable-bound phone and data networks in Africa obsolete. The rapid evolution in distributed
energy technologies and services is showing us that, Smart Grids will similarly soon overtake outdated
electrification approaches based solely on hub-and-spoke main-grid extension. In this evolution, mini-grids are already playing an important role as nuclei and test centers for Smart Grid development.