Today 1.06 billion people, or 20% of the World population, live without access to electricity (IEA and World Bank, 2017), mostly living in rural Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. They rely on torches and candles for lighting, and muscle power for most everything else. The result is a subsistence local economy. Providing reliable and sustainable access to electricity for these families brings many benefits. Light in the evenings raises educational levels because children can study at night; clinics can provide more reliable health care; burning less kerosene, indoor charcoal and animal dung improves family health, and lighting in the village makes nighttime safer, especially for women.

Universal access to modern energy services is a prerequisite for poverty eradication and human and economic development. However, that access requires equity investments in impoverished communities.  Who will make those investments, and is it possible to structure them to recover capital costs to get a return on the investment?

Join LightWorks at ASU and SSF in a 90-minute webinar exploring innovations in financing off grid (Minigrids) energy solutions in remote villages that can spark economic development and lead to sustainable rural energy markets.