SolarAid Response

May 2025

What is ‘community energy’ in the context of aid? What are the environmental, economic and social benefits of community-led energy initiatives? What are the risks and shortcomings?

Community energy, in the context of aid, means putting communities at the heart of the energy transition — recognising them not merely as beneficiaries but as co-designers, implementers, and stewards of their own energy futures. For SolarAid, this means working with communities to identify their energy needs and aspirations — across households, schools, health clinics, and livelihoods — and co-developing tailored, decentralised solutions that are sustainable and inclusive. From a SolarAid perspective, the poorest, hardest to reach populations across sub-saharan Africa are being left behind. There are virtually no examples of achieving universal access to energy across rural sub-saharan Africa.

Environmental benefits: Community-led clean energy reduces dependency on polluting fuels like kerosene and diesel, protecting forests and lowering emissions, especially in rural areas most vulnerable to the climate crisis.

Economic benefits: Reliable access to energy supports income generation through productive use (e.g. solar irrigation, small-scale enterprises), drives agricultural productivity, and reduces the cost and time burden of energy access.

Social benefits: Electricity empowers education, strengthens health systems, reduces gender inequality by relieving energy burdens on women, and improves quality of life.

Risks and shortcomings include:

• Within the energy access sector, we feel that insufficient time and investment is put into meaningful community engagement – particularly across rural sub-saharan Africa.

• Inadequate financing mechanisms for community-led planning and ownership.

• Market based solutions struggle to serve the poorest.

How does the UK’s ODA support decentralised energy initiatives? How effective is this support?

The UK has played a valuable role in promoting decentralised energy through innovation funding and multilateral programmes (e.g. Africa Clean Energy Technical Assistance Facility). However, its support has largely favoured market-based interventions, often without adequate attention to who is being reached and how local participation is structured.

From SolarAid’s perspective, much of the UK’s ODA still prioritises scalability over inclusivity. The poorest, most remote communities — where energy access is most transformational — are left behind due to assumptions about cost-effectiveness and return on investment. For the UK’s ODA to fully support decentralised energy, it must also support community-led planning processes,

How are development finance institutions engaging with the potential of community energy?

Development finance institutions have largely focused on commercially viable projects. While some DFIs are exploring results-based finance – at SolarAid we believe that the poorest hardest to reach populations are not being reached or prioritised.

There is significant untapped potential for DFIs to support early-stage grant finance for community energy assessments.

Can you provide examples of successful programmes or initiatives that have enhanced access to clean, affordable and inclusive energy systems? Or, on the opposite, are there examples of energy programmes where UK aid could have been used better?

1. Light a Village — Malawi

SolarAid’s Light a Village project is a flagship initiative piloted in the Kasakula Traditional Authority in Malawi. The programme uses an Energy-as-a-Service model to provide tier 1 electricity access to 100% of households in the area through decentralised solar home systems. Crucially – achieving 100% access in one of the poorest communities in one of the poorest countries in Africa is a key metric of success. Only by setting such targets can we expect to achieve SDG7. Side note: Please let us know if you know of other initiatives which set 100% energy access as a KPI.

Key features of the programme:

• Universal Access: Every household in the target area is included, regardless of income level or location.

• Affordability: The Energy-as-a-Service approach removes high upfront costs, offering households reliable lighting and phone charging for a small, regular fee.

• Community Engagement: Implemented with strong local participation and engagement, ensuring relevance, trust, and sustainability.

• Job Creation: Trained local agents provide installation and maintenance, supporting livelihoods and strengthening community capacity.

The project is designed to serve as a proof of concept for scalable rural electrification — demonstrating how targeted support and innovative business models can bridge the affordability gap for those most often left behind by market-driven approaches.

Similar projects are being implemented in Sierra Leone (Easy Solar) and Senegal (Moon) and the newly established Rural Energy Access Lab (REAL) which is Reaching last-mile communities through decentralised systems.

5. What are the main challenges facing the deployment of decentralised energy systems in ODA-recipient countries? How could they be overcome?

There are virtually no examples of achieving universal energy access anywhere across rural sub-saharan Africa. Market based initiatives (even subsidised efforts only manage to reach a percentage of the population. The poorest are being left behind.

Key challenges include:

• Affordability and Risk: The poorest often cannot afford even the lowest-tier energy solutions or take the risk to purchase. Companies cannot take the risk to trey to sell to the poorest hardest to reach populations.

Disrepair – Of the estimated 150 million off-grid solar products sold across sub-Saharan Africa over the last 10 years, 110 million are no longer functioning, highlighting the urgent need to invest in repair, maintenance, and circular solutions to protect consumer trust, extend product lifespans, and ensure the long-term success of energy access efforts. (Source: Off-Grid Solar Repair in Africa: From Burden to Opportunity – White Paper 2023

Recommendations to overcome these challenges:

• Expand results-based financing that rewards reaching underserved groups.

• Invest in local energy planning capacity, including training and tools for communities.

• Ensure subsidies and financing mechanisms are inclusive of ultra-poor households.

• Adopt Energy-as-a-Service as a solution which removed risk from companies and customers…enabling low income homes to access electricity by paying only for access – avoiding the need to make a large investment decision in order to purchase a product…which will fall into disrepair.

How can the value for money of community-led energy projects be evaluated to account for their full environment and social benefits?

Traditional value-for-money assessments focus heavily on cost per connection or kilowatt-hour. This misses the true developmental impact of energy access in underserved communities. Research by 60 Decibels shows that the first watt of energy access can have the greatest impact.

SolarAid believes that development assistance should:

1) Prioritise understanding the energy access needs and priorities of those being left behind…those characterised by high levels of poverty, low levels of electricity access and those particularly vulnerable to the impacts of the climate crisis.

2) Support the design of energy access solutions and roadmaps which meet these needs

3) Measure the impact of these interventions (Focus on how energy access fights poverty and builds resilience to the climate crisis for vulnerable populations.)

SolarAid is also calling on the development sector to be more accountable – more interventions need to be inclusive and with the objective of achieving 100% access within project areas. Too many interventions fail to reach the poorest.