Initiative for 100% rural electrification in developing countries: Case study of Senegal

Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest access to electricity in the World. In Senegal, less than 25% of the rural population benefit of electricity service. Solar energy offers an important potential to Senegal with over 3000 h of sunlight a year. This is a real opportunity to generalize the access to electricity. But, the efforts to bridge the gap must be diversified and completed. We approach the problem of rural electrification with a different point of view. Grid expansion and centralized solutions may be adequate for villages with a population organized in high-density of habitations. Small size villages or those with highly dispersed population may need different propositions because of cost. These regions will not be the priority of electrification programs. Furthermore, this rural population is characterized by its low income and saving. Such a conjuncture suggests the opportunity of a service based fees model for access to electricity. On the basis of a fees-for-service model, individual standalone photovoltaic systems may be a more appropriate solution to cover the priority needs of lighting and mobile phones battery charge for telecommunication. We present a pilot project in a village of Senegal to support the model and demonstrate its feasibility. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.