Energy access and development in the 21st Century

Increasing energy access is now recognised as an absolute priority for the development of rural areas. That has not always been the case and some countries are lagging behind, while others have made dramatic progress. Due to the demographic trend, the number of persons without access to energy is actually increasing and this trend may unfortunately continue for decades. Nevertheless, is seems that perception of priorities have changed among policy-makers, lessons from repetitive failures of international aid projects have been learnt; more innovative approaches to provide access have been successfully tried and it seems that now business models for dissemination at very large scale of small-scale decentralized RETs have been successfully tested and are ready for large-scale replication. Furthermore the apparition of new technologies like pico-PV and the wide spread use of mobile phones may give way to a dramatic shift of the way to provide electricity services in developing countries.

Energy access and development in the 21st Century. In: Ekins, P and Bradshaw, M and Watson, J, (eds.) Global energy: Issues, Potentials and Policy Implications. Oxford University Press: Oxford. (In press).

Lemaire, XML; (2015) 

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