This slide deck, part of an online course, gives a brief but thorough overview of business models for off-grid solar energy, looking in particular at pay-as-you-go models, and presents insights into the investment landscape for off-grid solar companies.
This brief explains the importance and benefits of an internationally harmonized quality assurance framework for small scale solar photovoltaic (pico-PV) products. Benefits are outlined for specific stakeholder groups, and a summary of the Lighting Global Quality Assurance (QA) Framework is provided for reference.
This brief explains the role of product testing in standard-setting for off-grid solar products. It provides recommendations based on good practices and explains how the Lighting Global Quality Assurance Program can help governments implement and enforce standards.
This policy brief provides guidance on the importance of quality standards for stand-alone solar products; how to develop and adopt standards, and the current status in Africa; common challenges encountered in this process; and market surveillance; as well as recommendations for governments.
This report uses economic modelling to investigate the viability of ten different productive use applications of solar power in agriculture (oil extraction, maize shelling, rice hulling, fruit juice making, sugar cane juicing, fruit drying, flour milling, peanut shelling and coffee pulping). It investigates each technology in detail and then calculates the profits and other benefits […]
This brief report introduces the concept of the WEF nexus and explains how the FAO has applied the nexus approach in its work, with many case study examples.
This report by the Alliance for Rural Electrification explores the role of women in advancing electrification and socio-economic development in rural communities and gives examples of ways to integrate gender equality throughout the off-grid energy supply chain.
This report provides recommendations for improving the availability of sex-disaggregated and specific gender equality data in the energy sector, to improve decision making and programme design.
This report highlights the importance of sector coupling as a key source of flexibility that cities can explore to stabilise power grid operations when integrating high shares of variable renewable energy sources. It presents a range of sector coupling opportunities available for use in cities, including self-consumption of variable RE sources, the role of thermal […]
People need water, energy, and food to sustain their livelihoods, grow economies, and achieve sustainable development. The interactions between these resource sectors form the crux of water-energy-food (WEF) nexus assessments. This study analyses the WEF nexus of 54 African nations and identifies bottlenecks resulting from water, energy, or food insecurity.