An analysis of renewable mini-grid projects for rural electrification

Almost 900 million people are living with no access to electricity, mostly in remote regions where extending the central grid is infeasible. These remote communities often heavily depend on expensive and polluting diesel generators that create significant financial and operational challenges. Following the recent advances and cost reductions in renewable technologies, governments, private sector, and non-profit organizations started investing in rural electrification projects through renewable mini-grids, some of which were reported to have been unsuccessful. The findings and the lessons learned from these projects remain highly compartmentalized across different studies, making it significantly challenging to derive evidence-based insights on clean rural electrification for investors and practitioners. This study aids in closing this gap by collecting project-level data on 104 renewable energy mini-grids installed across the globe. We first conduct a systematic review of these projects to derive qualitative insights on drivers of project success and the benefits to communities. Next, we empirically validate some of our qualitative findings and identify the factors contributing to mini-grid project success and cost. •Renewable mini-grids are popular for rural electrification but some projects fail.•We built a novel dataset on renewable mini-grid project costs and success.•Public ownership is more expensive per capita than private and community ownership.•Community-based ownership is a significant driver of mini-grid project success.