Study says keeping 1 billion people in the dark costs poor countries dearly
Monday, November 20, 2017
Governments that fail to use clean, off-grid energy to help get electricity fast to the one billion people living without power, mainly in Africa and South Asia, are missing opportunities to improve lives and boost development, energy experts said on Thursday.
The United Nations has set a target for everyone to have access to sustainable, affordable energy by 2030.
One way of doing this is to expand national power grids, a process that can take decades and often misses out rural areas, clean energy campaigners say.
Research from the London-based Overseas Development Institute, published on Thursday, showed that speeding up access to off-grid electricity, such as solar home systems and clean energy mini-grids, can bring significant benefits.
If households in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Kenya replace kerosene lamps with solar-powered lighting they could each save about $10 a month, said report author Andrew Scott.
Photo courtesy of Lumos Global.
Source: TRT World (link opens in a new window)
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