1. An innovative business model for rural sub-Saharan Africa electrification.
- Author
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Vanadzina, Evgenia, Pinomaa, Antti, Honkapuro, Samuli, and Mendes, Gonçalo
- Abstract
Abstract Despite a significant progress in electrification over the last decade, more than 1 billion people have no access to electricity, and about 3 billion use solid fuel or kerosene for cooking and heating purposes. More than 95 % of them live in sub-Saharan Africa or developing Asia, and around 80 % are situated in rural areas. Conventional approach to power supply such as transmission grid extension is not economical due to high investment and connection costs. Technological progress has shifted down capital costs of renewable off-grid solutions. However, in the most cases, it is not enough to reach feasibility of these solutions due to weak investment conditions and weak purchasing power of the local population in these areas. The choice of business model can have a vital role in bringing electrification and connectivity to rural areas, providing flexibility and adaptability of the technology to the market conditions. Analysis of existing literature on business models for off-grid solutions concludes that the model for rural areas in developing countries should be more service oriented, be scalable to various use case scenarios, should provide good risk balance between customer and provider, and should enable transparency and quality of service. This paper analyses recent developments in off-grid system solutions for sub-Saharan Africa and provides classification of business model innovations. Based on the analysis, the paper proposes an innovative business model for Fusion Grid project, scalable mini-grid integrated with connectivity solution. Feasibility of the project is tested for three different cases, depending on the type of the rural community. Results suggests that combining micro-grid based power supply and internet connection as one service can contribute to a viability of the project, and, furthermore, can contribute to achieving global electrification goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
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