REAL publishes white paper on Why Energy-as-a-Service works for the hardest to reach
ARE Member REAL Programme Catalyst‘s flagship white paper, Why Energy-as-a-Service works for the hardest to reach sets out the case for a fundamentally different approach to delivering universal energy access in underserved rural communities.
Drawing on REAL’s early pilots across sub-Saharan Africa, the report explores how our Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) model has overcome the biggest barriers facing last-mile households, including affordability, maintenance, long-term reliability and equitable access.
Traditional PAYGo rent-to-own approaches are unable to reach the communities furthest from the grid, where incomes are lowest, infrastructure is weak, and the costs of deployment are highest. Instead, REAL’s model delivers solar home systems as an ongoing service, removing upfront costs for households while supporting long-term operations, maintenance and customer care.
The report highlights five key insights from the pilots to date, demonstrating how EaaS works for communities, for local operators and for governments.
This adds to growing evidence from the recent customer survey report from REAL’s pilot programmes in Malawi, Senegal and Sierra Leone, in which customers report significant improvements in lighting access, affordability and quality of life after connecting through EaaS-based services.
As momentum builds around Mission 300 and global efforts to achieve SDG7, the paper calls for greater collaboration between governments, funders, industry and development partners to scale affordable, service-led energy access models that leave no one behind.
The publication marks an important milestone for REAL Programme Catalyst as it continues to build the evidence base for community-wide, long-term electrification for the hardest to reach.
Source: https://www.realenergyaccesslab.org/news/report-energy-as-a-service-for-the-hardest-to-reach