The document summarizes the findings from workshops held by the Smart Villages Initiative exploring off-grid energy solutions. Over 700 participants across 22 workshops in multiple regions identified several promising areas including home-based solar power, mini-grids, improved cookstoves, and the potential for these solutions to help achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals. Key challenges discussed were improving access to financing, building local skills and awareness, engaging communities, and balancing costs and revenues for mini-grid projects.

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THE SMART VILLAGES INITIATIVE:
INITIAL FINDINGS
9 July 2016
Dr Bernie Jones

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SUMMARY OF FINDINGS TO DATE
■Cross-cutting issues
■Home-based supply
■Mini-grids
■Cooking/heating
■Sustainable
development Goals

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22 WORKSHOPS HELD TO DATE: OVER 700 PARTICIPANTS
East Africa
 First East Africa regional workshop: Arusha, Tanzania,
June 2014
 East Africa media dialogue workshop: Kigali, Rwanda,
November 2014
 East Africa Community Leaders’ dialogue workshop:
Terrat, Tanzania, August 2015
 Concluding high-level workshop for East Africa
engagement: Kigali, Rwanda, September 2015
Southeast Asia
 First Southeast Asia regional workshop: Kuching,
Malaysia, January 2015
 Southeast Asia media dialogue workshop: Seoul, South
Korea, September 2015
 Energy for off-grid islands: Bunaken island, Indonesia,
November 2015
 Sustainable dissemination of improved cookstoves:
lessons from Southeast Asia: Yangon, Myanmar,
December 2015
 Smart Villages and resilience to natural disasters:
National University of Singapore, May 2016
 The energy and water nexus: Burgos, Philippines, June
2016
West Africa
 First West Africa Regional workshop: Accra, Ghana, May 2016
South Asia
 Smart Villages in Nepal: Kathmandu, Nepal, April 2015
 Southeast Asia media dialogue workshop, Seoul, June 2015
 Smart Villages in Bangladesh: Dhaka, Bangladesh, August
2015
 Smart Villages in Pakistan: Islamabad, October 2015
 State level brainstorm: Odisha, India, April 2016
South America
 First South America regional workshop: Lima, Peru, January
2016
 Sustainable energy for rural communities in Bolivia: La Paz,
Bolivia, April 2016
UK
 First Forward Look workshop: New technologies for off-grid
villages – a look ahead: January 2014
 Second Forward Look workshop: Potential breakthroughs in
the use of energy in off-grid villages: December 2015
 Business and financial models: January 2016
 Frontier energy storage technologies: Edinburgh University,
May 2016

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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
 Off-grid solutions superior to grid
extension for some
 Off-grid solutions often more expensive
than normal grid tariff
 BUT cheaper and more affordable than
existing solutions
 Economic returns can be made at energy
and cost levels of off-grid technologies
 Need for better awareness and
aspirational value
 Focus has been on access rather than
use or “smartness”
 Resilience

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CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES
1. Improve access to affordable finance:
■ build/share track records of income streams
■ risk mitigation: credit guarantees
■ reduce transaction costs
2. Provide support to entrepreneurs:
■ business incubation & advice services
■ cut red tape / give breathing space
3. Build capacity:
■ technical/business/institutional/finance/ maintenance sector
4. Create awareness
5. Involve women and youth
6. Don’t give things away

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HOME-BASED SUPPLY: SOLAR HOME SYSTEMS AND
PICO-SOLAR LIGHTS
Substantial
advances
• PV cost reductions
• Increased efficiency
of appliances
• Pay-as-you-go
Key factors
3rd Generation
systems

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HOME-BASED SUPPLY (2): SUCCESS STORIES
East Africa: business-driven
Further accelerate rollout by:
 access to finance
 leverage distribution networks
 Build skill base
Bangladesh: Government-led
 Ownership by group of stakeholders
 Subsidised finance
 Repay in instalments
 Effective technical standards
 Technical support
How can these models be adopted and adapted for
other countries/regions?

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HOME-BASED SUPPLY (3): LOOKING AHEAD
■ Tackle problem of poor quality and
counterfeit products
■ Needed technical developments:
■ Better batteries
■ Recycling
■ Plug and play
■ Control systems
■ New PV technologies
■ Appliance efficiency
■ DC nano-grids

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MINI-GRIDS
 Technical developments reduce
equipment costs
 Economies of scale: replication
 Anchor loads absorb costs
 Reduce set-up overheads
 Reduce financing costs
 Capital cost subsidy
 Get the tariffs right: constraints of
affordability & equality
 Stimulate productive enterprise to
increase incomes
 Increase load factors: improved control
systems & productive enterprises
 Increase level of connections
 Operating cost subsidy
More limited progress – costs can be greater than revenues –
how can we balance the books?
costs revenues

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MINI-GRIDS (2): COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
■Villagers should be the main drivers
■Build on local knowledge and customs
■Work with trusted individual and
organisations: local champions
■Ensure that the poor have a voice & stake,
not just the powerful
“projects are 70%social / 30% technical”

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COOKING/HEATING: KEY DRIVERS
■Health risks
■Environmental impacts
■Social benefits

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COOKING (2): KEY FINDINGS
1. Address user needs and cultures
2. Financing schemes (& subsidies) to
ensure viability of all stages of value
chain
3. Enhance product quality
4. Technical and business support

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Ensure access to affordable, reliable,
sustainable and modern energy for all
By 2030:
■ Ensure universal access to affordable, reliable and
modern energy services
■ Increase substantially the share of renewable energy
in the global energy mix
■ Double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
■Goal 7: level of ambition (& metrics)
■Goal 17: strengthen means of
implementation:
■Better coordination
■Sharing of information
■University collaborations
■Evaluating development outcomes
■Other goals: integrated approach

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1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and
decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests,
combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all
and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable
development

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Thank you for your attention
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