Click here to register!
Publication - Demand for Off-Grid Solar Electricity: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda
From energypedia
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
►Add a New Publication
►See All Latest Publications
Title
Demand for Off-Grid Solar Electricity: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda
Publisher
Environment for Development (EfD)
Author
Michael Grimm, Luciane Lenz, Jörg Peters, Maximiliane Sievert
Published in
November 2017
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 off-grid 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.
URL
Admin:
No
