• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’ January 23, 2023
Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom January 23, 2023
IRON OXIDE: New Battery Brings Long-Duration Storage to Grids, 750 Jobs to West Virginia January 23, 2023
BREAKING: GFANZ Banks, Investors Pour Hundreds of Billions into Fossil Fuels January 17, 2023
Next
Prev

Off-Grid Renewables Expand to Fill Energy Access Gaps

January 12, 2023
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Christopher Bonasia @CBonasia_

https://www.flickr.com/photos/asiandevelopmentbank/22186030516

Asian Development Bank / Flickr.com

 

Off-grid energy from technologies like mini-grids, biofuels, and solar may often go unrecorded, but a new report attempting to fill statistical gaps still shows that the rise of off-grid renewables was thrown off-course during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) annual Off-Grid Renewable Energy Statistics released in December “is an essential tool for monitoring and measuring the role of off-grid renewables to achieve the energy transition and universal energy access by 2030,” said Dennis Akande, the agency’s associate program officer for statistics.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
New!
Subscribe

Off-grid renewables capacity has been expanding in recent years thanks to falling costs, technological and financial innovation, and supportive policies. IRENA’s publication includes statistics for mini-grids, biogas-powered cooking and lighting, and off-grid solar lights, pumps, and home solar systems across countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Oceania, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. The information is available in English, French, and Spanish, with values organized by country and region for each year from 2012 through 2021.

IRENA based its estimates on information collected from various sources, including questionnaires, national and international databases, and unofficial sources like project reports, news articles, academic studies, and websites. The numbers show a general increase in off-grid renewable energy capacity since 2012 for all technologies across nearly all regions. Outliers include some solar home systems and biogas for cooking, which declined in Asia, and total biogas production, which dropped by more than one million cubic metres due to decreases in Asia and South America.

The available data did show a general increase across most off-grid technologies, but with varied results across countries. For instance, the number of people using biogas for cooking dropped over the 10 years of data—largely because of a decline across Asia—while use of solar lights and solar home systems decreased in various countries across several regions. Solar microgrid usage in South America held constant through all 10 years.

Use of some of the technologies also increased or decreased inconsistently through the study period. This was most noticeable for biogas, solar lights, and solar home systems, which all dropped off through the main years of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The decline in solar lighting in 2021 was particularly pronounced, with total usage falling by almost half in India and to a lesser degree across most of Africa (though IRENA statistics do not provide enough information to establish a direct link between off-grid energy use and the pandemic).

Off-grid renewable energy systems are especially useful for rural communities that lack access to centralized electricity generation and often rely on polluting, expensive energy sources for lighting and cooking. Off-grid systems can also be important for health centres that don’t have grid access, where a lack of electricity can result in disastrous outcomes for patients. Policy support to address these issues has delivered good results—for example, off-grid solar light capacity in Africa rose from 15.4 million in 2012 to 112 million in 2021, despite a drop between 2020 and 2021, and more than 122 million people now us biogas for cooking, which reduces indoor pollution that is detrimental to women’s and children’s health, IRENA says.



in Cities & Communities, Clean Electricity Grid, Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Energy Access & Equity, International Agencies & Studies, Off-Grid

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

United Nations
Air & Marine

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
4
RL0919/wikimedia commons
Finance & Investment

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.1k
@tongbingxue/Twitter
Ending Emissions

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
262

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.1k
@tongbingxue/Twitter

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
262
Rachel Notley/Facebook

Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom

January 23, 2023
249
James Vincent Wardhaugh/flickr

Canada Sidelines Ontario’s Ring of Fire, Approves Separate Mining Project

December 4, 2022
374
Weirton, WV by Jon Dawson/flickr

IRON OXIDE: New Battery Brings Long-Duration Storage to Grids, 750 Jobs to West Virginia

January 23, 2023
492
TALL ORDER -- A field of “Freedom” giant miscanthus on Mississippi State University’s South Farm towers over research agronomist Brian Baldwin. Baldwin’s 12-year study of grassy feedstocks indicates the plant is a viable resource for biofuel production. (Photo by MSU Ag Communications/Scott Corey)

Bamboo-like Crop Could Cut U.S. Midwest Warming by 1°C

May 4, 2022
958

Recent Posts

United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
4
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
185
Sergio Boscaino/flickr

Dubai Mulls Quitting C40 Cities Over ‘Costly’ Climate Target

January 24, 2023
84
hangela/pixabay

New UK Coal Mine Faces Two Legal Challenges

January 24, 2023
43

Gas Stoves Enter U.S. Climate Culture War, Become ‘Bellwether’ for Industry

January 22, 2023
72
Jeff Hitchcock/flickr.

BREAKING: GFANZ Banks, Investors Pour Hundreds of Billions into Fossil Fuels

January 23, 2023
493
Next Post
Ross Dunn/flickr

2023 Will be a Watershed Year for Climate Litigation

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}