Off-grid solar is now the cheapest electricity solution for at least 398 million people, with the World Bank estimating $11.4 billion in investment needed through 2030. The use of off-grid solar has surged in the pat two years supporting 219,000jobs! Read more in Alex Kimani’s article. Balcony solar is now legal in California, so you can get solar panels that you can install yourself!
The World Bank now ranks off-grid solar as the cheapest way to bring electricity to at least 398 million people who still live without it. A joint report released this week by the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) and the off-grid solar industry association GOGLA treats the technology as permanent infrastructure. Systems once sold as a stopgap until the grid arrived now power households, businesses and factories, and 95% of surveyed customers still had working solar home systems four or more years after buying them. The report estimates that bringing reliable off-grid electricity to those 398 million people will take $11.4 billion between 2027 and 2030. That includes $1.3 billion a year in grants and affordability subsidies and $1.6 billion a year in equity, debt and receivables financing. It is a small but critical slice of the $3 trillion to $5 trillion in average annual energy transition investment the world needs by 2030.