Financing energy access through community participatory equity: building and modeling a multidimensional energy access framework for rural community-level PV micro-grids to inform market entry strategy
Date
2016
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This thesis seeks to further the academic definition and practitioner implementation of energy access solutions by developing and applying a theoretical multidimensional energy access framework that understands the drivers and barriers to successful rural energy implementation through the lens of four dimensions: techno-economic, socio-economic, agro-economic and institutional-economic. The rapid deployment and acceleration of rural energy access interventions is also catalytically dependent on financing, and understanding this multidimensionality may help institutional and private investors and policymakers close the $1 trillion financing gap for rural micro-grids. Because of their open-access nature, micro-grids can be considered as common property resources capable of community management without a tragedy of the commons under a theoretically Ostromian Community Participatory Equity (CPE) framework. Cost-driven by the remoteness of the project, these community-managed systems have significant socio-economic benefits and can see significant improvements in project economics and financing through cost decreases that are instead taken on by the community rather than the third-party developer or project company, reducing the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) by over 50%. This work concludes that the CPE framework, especially when paired with grant financing for capital costs and early-stage O&M&M fees, can greatly increase the attractiveness of these projects for investors and end users and enable an informed and targeted market entry strategy for the vast untapped off-grid markets.