1) The document discusses the Smart Villages Initiative which aims to promote access to modern energy for the 1 billion people without electricity and 3 billion people relying on inefficient cooking stoves. 2) It outlines key features of smart villages including ICT connectivity for education, health and governance, fostering entrepreneurship around energy services, and building resilience. 3) The initiative is a partnership between universities in Cambridge and Oxford, and focuses on mini-grid and home-based energy approaches through country workshops to identify barriers and solutions to maximizing energy access.

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THE SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE
John Holmes & Bernie Jones
January 2015

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JANUARY 2015
■ More than 1 billion
people without access to
electricity
■ 3 billion people still
cooking on dirty,
inefficient and harmful
stoves
■ As a result, 4 million
people dying each year

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UN SE4ALL INITIATIVE
■ Ensure universal access to modern energy
services by 2030

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UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY BY 2030
30%
70%
New connections in rural areas
IEA World Energy Outlook
Grid extension
Mini-grid and
home-based

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ENERGY AS A CATALYST FOR DEVELOPMENT
sustainable
Energy Access
for development

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SMART CITIES: NEED FOR A VILLAGE LEVEL
ANALOGUE
SMART
VILLAGES
SMART
CITIES
47% of world’s
population and 70% of
the world’s poor live in
rural villages

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SMART VILLAGES: SOME KEY FEATURES
Education and health services
 ICT connectivity: distance learning and world’s knowledge base
 Modern health services and tele-medicine
Through ICT connectivity, participate in governance processes
 At local, regional and national levels
 Creating smart communities with strong rural and urban linkages
Foster entrepreneurship in provision and use of energy services
 Capture more of the agricultural value chain
 Create new businesses
Building more resilient communities better able to
respond to shocks
 Clean water and sanitation
 Affordable and nutritious food

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SHIFTING THE BALANCE OF OPPORTUNITIES
BETWEEN CITIES AND VILLAGES
Technological
advances
Game changing
technologies

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THE SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE
Focus: mini/micro-grid and home-based approaches
Policy advice: an insightful, ‘view from the frontline’ of the
challenges of village energy provision for development, and
how they can be overcome
Workshops: bringing together the key players: scientists,
entrepreneurs, villagers, NGO’s, financers, regulators and
policy makers etc:
 What are the barriers?
 How can they be overcome?
 What messages to funders and policy makers?

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Project team:
Universities of
Cambridge and
Oxford
Key partners:
- National Science
Academies
- Practical Action / TERI
Funding:
charitable
foundations:
CMEDT & TWCF
SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE: A PARTNERSHIP

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SMART VILLAGES: PREPARATORY WORK
Scoping study
 Village-level energy services in Tanzania, Ghana and India
 University of Oxford study team
 Published January 2013: www.e4sv.org
Extensive round of meetings
 Europe: European Commission and Parliament
 UN: UNIDO and UNEP
 Other stakeholders
Forward look workshop
 Cambridge, January 2014
 Possible game changing scientific / technical developments over next
10-20 years

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CORE COMPONENT: IN-COUNTRY WORKSHOPS
 East Africa – June 2014
 SE Asia – January 2015
 South Asia – March 2015
 South America – January 2016
 West Africa – April 2016
 Central America – November 2016

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IN EACH REGION - 12 MONTH PROGRAMME OF
ENGAGEMENT ACTIVITIES:
Preparation of briefs/reports
and briefing meetings
Capacity building events
Further workshops
Entrepreneurial
competitions
Final event with key
stakeholders

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CROSS-CUTTING ACTIVITIES
Booklet of essays
Pocket guide
Website:www.e4sv.org
Final Workshops: Brussels
and Addis Ababa

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THE SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE
A key aim: identify framework conditions to:
 foster entrepreneurial activities
 maximise leverage of public sector funding
An underlying premise: maximise social benefit and
development impact:
 integrate energy access with other development initiatives
 take a community level approach
An important concern:
 to catalyse progression through the various levels of
energy access

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ARUSHA WORKSHOP: FINDINGS &
RECOMMENDATIONS
 Solar lights/home systems:
− Have reached ‘tipping point’: rapid expansion on commercial basis
− Pace of rollout constrained by distribution networks and working capital
− Energy escalator approach to higher powers: TV, fridge, sewing machine
 Mini-grids:
■ Search for scalable business models – for now continuing needs for govt/donor
support
■ Catch 22 for developers: access to affordable finance
■ Dynamic mini-grids v solar home systems: ‘hub and spoke’ model
 Technologies:
■ Potential breakthroughs in cost: e.g. printable organic solar cells
■ Need for:
■ Improved control systems
■ ‘Plug and play’ technologies
■ Recycling
■ More applied research: improved links between university researchers & SMEs

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ARUSHA WORKSHOP: FINDINGS &
RECOMMENDATIONS
 Integrate with other development initiatives:
− Associated investments in productive enterprises in the home &
community
− New enterprises and increased productivity of existing income
generating activities
 Need for better collaboration:
− A confusion/competition of funders
− Public-private-community partnerships
 Supportive policy and regulatory frameworks:
− Plea from entrepreneurs: less red tape and some breathing space
− Nurture home grown enterprises: business incubation / advisory
support services
 Value of sharing of information & experiences:
■ Across East African countries
■ Case studies of smart villages
■ Government/donor funded datasets of wind, hydro etc. potential
 Develop approaches to evaluate development
outcomes

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@e4SmartVillages
www.e4sv.org
Thank you for
your attention